This is throwing the baby out with the bath water. The problems aren’t with mobile computing, but with social media and free-to-play games abusing the science of addiction to create psychological dependencies in users (and children are especially vulnerable to this). Even the timing of your notifications can and are used to manipulate you.

Recent news suggests that the ones who should be banned from smartphones are MPs.

Teaching kids about responsible use of smartphones and social media, and using the available parental controls, is the right way to go about making sure kids are safe.

Trying to stop kids from getting their hands on smartphones is a laughable policy idea. Social media is ubiquitous with modern day youth, they will find a way to access it one way or another.

Is this some ploy to drum up an excuse for losing the upcoming election?

LOL as if that’s gonna stop them from owning smartphones, teenagers don’t even have that much money to even pay for it to begin with cuz they’re school kids, so it’s always the parents that pay for it anyways. This proposed legalisation is literally not going to do anything.

Not at all enforcable.

So of course they’ll do it.

"You there, with the smartphone! Let’s see some papers and a loicence!

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Ministers are considering banning the sale of smartphones to children under the age of 16 after a number of polls have shown significant public support for such a curb.

The government issued guidance on the use of mobile phones in English schools two months ago, but other curbs are said to have been considered to better protect children after a number of campaigns.

Esther Ghey, the mother of 16-year-old Brianna, who was murdered last year, has been campaigning for an age limit for smartphone usage and stricter controls on access to social media apps.

One Tory government source described the idea as “out of touch”, noting: “It’s not the government’s role to step in and microparent; we’re meant to make parents more aware of the powers they have like restrictions on websites, apps and even the use of parental control apps.”

Rishi Sunak is already braced for a backlash to his plan to ban the next generation from being able to buy cigarettes.

Anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 – in effect anyone who is 14 or younger now – will not legally be able to buy cigarettes in England during their lives as the smoking age is raised by one year every year, subject to MPs’ approval, under the plans first reported in the Guardian.

The original article contains 478 words, the summary contains 218 words. Saved 54%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

Of course they are, they’re scared they’re even losing the vote of the “kids these days…” tory core so they’re thrashing about like a fish out of water trying desperately to not lose them… There’s been stories like this for months now and very little to come from most of them