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Episode details

Radio 4,3 mins

Brian Draper - 10/02/2024

Thought for the Day

Available for over a year

Good morning. I鈥檝e really appreciated recent debate, on this programme and beyond, as to whether children should have smartphones - though it鈥檚 sad that much of it has had to be sparked by the death of Brianna Ghey. Her mum Esther called this week for under-16鈥檚 to be allowed only so-called 鈥榗hildren鈥檚 phones' which can鈥檛 use social media. The children鈥檚 commissioner Rachel de Souza spoke positively of this on Woman鈥檚 Hour, saying that half of the 13-year-olds her team had surveyed reported seeing 鈥榟ardcore, misogynistic鈥 pornographic material on social media. As the dad of teenage girls (and a twenty-year-old son) myself, I don鈥檛 want to hear that, but I need to. Another mum, Daisy Greenwood, who鈥檚 set up a group to encourage parents of primary school kids to 鈥渟tick to bricks鈥, summed up the less dramatic, yet mounting challenge, 鈥榯hat the earlier a child gets a phone, the higher the chances 鈥 they'll suffer from depression and anxiety.鈥 With phones distracting kids so much from drawing, reading, playing, she says: 'I'd argue the minute a child has a smartphone, that's the end of their childhood.鈥 It鈥檚 bold, but it resonates. I found myself apologising to my son recently that we simply didn鈥檛 know how addictive the technology would be, when he first got one. He told me, in a heart-felt chat how he felt his generation needed a year in the mountains away from phones to detox and learn how to live again. And for me, that鈥檚 where the spiritual question kicks in. Because it鈥檚 not just about damage limitation. The onus is on us adults, I think, to lead a way back to life ourself - limiting our own digital over-consumption, now we know the effects, and learning to live well within and without our technology. Lent starts next week, when Christians recall Jesus going into the desert for 40 days to a place beyond distraction, to work out what 鈥榣ife in its fullness鈥, as he called it, really meant. I鈥檓 starting small: I鈥檝e bought an alarm clock, so I won鈥檛 have a phone in my bedroom. We need them for so much, from parking to podcasts - but first thing in the morning and last thing at night can be space again from which I draw deep. For me as a Christian, my Source is God. But whatever we believe, it鈥檚 worth asking: What鈥檚 the source of my life, love, energy, joy 鈥 if it鈥檚 not a phone? What gets me up in the morning? 鈥淲hat was I made for?鈥 as that brilliant Billie Eilish song from the Barbie movie asks and which touches my 13-year-old girl so deeply.

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