Smartphones for kids, particularly those under 12, are a bad idea, according to Child Psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, who led the 2018 review into mobile phones in schools and their successful Australia-wide ban.
A disclaimer first. Charlie Brown, publisher of CyberShack, and his wife Rachael launched G-mee in 2018 as a kid’s safe Android ‘phone’. G-mee was born after a long gestation and lots of consultation with Aussie parents and kids. It is 100% Australian-developed, uses specially designed, lower-cost Android handsets. It is a labour of love, self-financed by Charlie and Rachael (and their mortgage). You can even talk to Charlie or leave feedback about what you would like to see in future iterations of the app.
So, what is a kid-safe phone?
Charlie summed it up, “Originally it was an Android phone without a phone, camera or Google Apps, so kids can’t abuse it. It focuses on 6-13-year-olds and takes out the things they should not use.”
You can read the CyberShack review G-mee Play Pro – a safe kids ‘non-phone’ and now there is a version with access to approved Google Play Apps G-mee Connect Pro 4G – A safe Android smartphone for kids and seniors.
Smartphones for kids – the enormous risk
A new study by the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, of 100,000, 18 to 24-year-old people who have had smartphones since 12 years old, has quantified the dangers of giving a child a smartphone (without G-mee training wheels), essentially an unsupervised gateway to the world.
There was a high correlation with:
- Suicidal thoughts (ratings of ≥7 on a 9-point scale, where 9 is most severe life impact)
- Aggression to family and others
- Detachment from reality
- Hallucination
- Poor emotional regulation
- Low self-worth/esteem
- Negative body image
- Following ‘trends’ promoting risky behaviour like train surfing
- Cyberbullying
- Disrupted sleep
- Access to pornography and poor attitude to the opposite sex
- Poor family and friend relationships
- Loss of resilience (ability to cope with the world)
- High levels of ‘gullibility’ in believing patently false information
This was largely caused by social media becoming their sole source of world interaction, lowering their MHQ (mental health quotient). Specifically, the MHQ score drops from 30 for those who acquired a smartphone at age 13 to just 1 for those who acquired a smartphone at age five. And having access to AI-powered social media environments at a younger age puts individuals at an even greater risk.
“It has become very clear that you cannot replace play-based childhood with screens and not expect deficits. Parents should be giving their kids dumb phones instead.” Dr Michael Carr-Gregg
The report calls for bans on smartphones for under-13-year-olds with the same style of penalties and legislation that applies to smoking or alcohol.
What about age verification?
It is a great idea to prevent under-16s from accessing internet content, but any tech-savvy kid can find a way around it. It is for honest kids! And, of course, the bad guys (Facebook, et al.) will have your photo and other data.
It utilises facial scan and age recognition technology to enable you to search or access social media.
Australia is leading the way with a proposed social media ban, and the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, is considering rules for mandatory age checks across the entire internet. Providers will be required to implement parental controls to limit children’s access to adult content.
The intent is to limit young people’s access to pornography, violence, self-harm, abuse and other inappropriate material. Providers must also ensure that inappropriate advertising is not served up in search results to child account holders.
But we are concerned that the measures to achieve this are either all or nothing and could suffer from political, social or even other nations’ censorship and interference.
The new code has been in development since July 2024 and is scheduled for implementation by December 2025. The Digital Industry Group, an industry association representing tech companies including Google, Meta and Microsoft, co-led the drafting of it. A single breach could result in a search engine provider being fined up to $49.5 million.
CyberShack’s view: We need to do everything to remove smartphones for kids to help them grow up to be responsible young adults
I have a couple of young grandkids who spend almost all their time with a screen in front of their faces. They raise merry hell when the screen is taken away – terrible twos have nothing on these guys.
It is no use trying to educate their parents because they are equally addicted to screen-time, and it is an excellent child ‘pacifier’ (electronic dummy).
They are precisely the type of parents who need this legislation to give them the confidence to say no to unfettered screen access for their kids. So I gave them a couple of G-Mee non-phones, and you know what? It’s working.
As a tech-savvy person, I can see that we will never outdo the dopamine-peddling social media behemoths, regardless of legislation, so I view Charlie’s G-Mee as an easy way for parents to bridge the gap. I gave one to my aged Aunt as well – she loves the anti-scam features.
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