Children spend too much time on their smartphones, and it really has to stop, says the Government.
For once I agree with them. A generation of kids is growing up – if that’s the right word – addicted to their mobiles. By the time they get to 11, nine out of 10 kids have one, and they’re beginning to lose the simple social skill of talking to each other.
Now the order has gone out from Whitehall: smartphones must be banned from the classroom. Headmistress Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, is very cross with the pupils.
She may well have reason to be, but who is responsible for this state of affairs? I don’t blame the kids, they don’t know any better. I blame the adults.
They’re the ones behaving badly. Wherever I look, on trains, in pubs, in the street, there are so-called grown-ups glued to their tiny screens, scrolling and clicking like demented robots. If Miss Trunchbull wants to set an example, she should start with Members of Parliament. They loll on leather benches in the Commons, eyes down on their taxpayer-funded gizmos, oblivious to the debates going on.
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Who are they msging (did I get that right?) or emailing? What is more important on their private little screen than the business of lawmaking? In at least one case, we know it’s “adult material”. Disgraced ex-MP Neil Parish lost his Tiverton seat after being caught watching porn.
Initially, he said it was a mistake; he’d been looking at tractors. What’s the difference? Massey Ferguson or massive, er, assets? Either way, it’s a distraction from the job.
When smartphones first came out, they were banned from the chamber. That soon went. MPs have no more control over themselves than teenage scrollers.
Politicians in glass houses should not throw stones at children. They have a habit of bouncing back.
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