Smartphones should be banned for under-16s ‘as they make children depressed’, insist experts

UNDER-16s should be banned from using smartphones, insists a new campaign.

The parent group UsforThem fears their addictive apps make children distracted, isolated and depressed.

It also wants “tobacco-style health warnings” on mobile phone packaging.

The campaign, backed by experts and MPs, calls on the Government to take action to help combat the digital dependance of kids.

Schools reformer Katharine Birbalsingh told The Sun: “Banning smartphones for under 16s is an absolute necessity.”

Ms Birbalsingh, dubbed Britain’s strictest headteacher, added: “We ban all sorts of things for under 16s: sex, cigarettes, alcohol, driving, even some films.

“Yet we make access to these and much worse via the smartphone so easy, done without parental knowledge, not to mention how phones break their brains.”

Former Peep Show star Sophie Winkleman, who has twice moved her two girls out of “tech-heavy schools”, backs the campaign.

She believes regular use of phones and social media apps such as TikTok hampers the ability of children to learn.

Winkleman, 42 — who is married to Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Prince Michael of Kent — said: “Being online in any capacity is addictive as hell.

“The internet is a toxic wilderness we’re letting children stumble through without protection.

“I lived in California and spent time with bigwigs in Silicon Valley and tellingly they did not let their children anywhere near screens.”