Bans on smartphone and social media access alone fail to equip children for healthy use of technology, a new report has revealed.

A report published by the British Medical Journal has said that curbs are being applied to smartphones despite a lack of evidence on their effects.

The research was led by Dr Victoria A Goodyear of the Institute for Mental Health at the University of Birmingham in England.

On Newstalk Breakfast, Dr Goodyear said research shows there is no difference made by smartphone bans.

“What we found in our research is that bans on smartphone and social media have been advocated in many different countries with the aim of this to protect children from harm,” she said.

“Now in our previous study, we evaluated the impact of school smartphone bans in England, and we found that for adolescents attending a school with a smartphone ban, there was no difference in outcomes across mental health, physical activity, sleep, attainment in English and math, and also disruptive classroom behaviour.

“So what we're arguing in this article is that we need to move beyond the sole focus on bans and begin to think about a broader and holistic approach to supporting young people's health and well-being.

“This is particularly important in a digital society where technology cuts across many aspects of our lives and so we need to start to think longer term and how we can really equip children for healthy technology use.”

Children texting on their phones in the back seat. Picture by: Tetra Images / Alamy Stock Photo