There is “no evidence” to support the assertion that children are addicted to smartphones, a cyberpsychology expert has said.
Amid rising concern about the overuse of smartphones, the Spanish Government has announced doctors will be trained to check children for signs of phone addiction.
Speaking to Lunchtime Live, Dr Nicola Fox Hamilton said she would not support asking Irish doctors to do the same.
“If you look at the overall body of evidence for something like phone addiction, mobile addiction, there’s actually no evidence to support that being something,” she said.
“Some people and some kids have problematic use where they’re using it so much that it interferes with other important aspects of their life.
“But most people aren’t using it in that problematic way.”
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Dr Fox Hamilton added that phone use is “not a singular thing” as people do all sorts of things on their phones.
“They might be talking to their friends, they might be on social media, they might be playing games, they might be learning stuff,” she said.
“There are a million things that we do on our smartphones and to say we’re addicted to all of those just because it comes through one device is kind of pointless.
“It’s not a meaningful construct.”
Children texting on their phones in the back seat. Picture by: Tetra Images / Alamy Stock PhotoDr Fox Hamilton also said she also believed the concept of ‘smartphone addiction’ would distract from the many mental health issues children need help with.
“This is something that is very resource heavy to implement and you’re implementing something that has no evidence behind it,” she said.
“We know that kids have lots of mental health problems and in Ireland it’s massively under-resourced and people cannot get help for their kids and that’s where we need to be putting the money and funding.
“Rather than on something like this that sounds like an easy solution but actually isn’t helpful at all and could cause greater problems than it solves.”
Main image: Children with smartphones. Picture by: Alamy.com
