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There is one sentence I hear repeatedly: “Mum, when can I get a smartphone?” I’ve been doing the rounds of secondary school tours with my 10-year-old daughter Lola over the last couple of weeks for 2027’s entry into year seven– and her demands are getting louder.
“Never” is the answer I’d like to give her – and I do sometimes. But that makes her almost burst into tears, and tell me how mean I am.
But a new report from the Blackout app – which restricts smart device functionality by blocking non-essential apps (such as social media, gaming, gambling and cameras) while keeping communication like calls and SMS active – is strengthening my resolve to keep saying “no”.
The report has proved that when phones are out of the picture, kids do better. It’s as simple as that. And, like any parent with a child on the threshold of secondary school who is wavering about whether or not to get them a smartphone, I’m feeling galvanised by this hard evidence.
It is hard to argue with the findings of the report: Sixty per cent of participating schools reported improved GCSE results after introducing Blackout technology, according to the findings published in The Times.
While parents who shunned smartphones five years ago often felt like lone outliers, now we are a growing army
The report found more tranquil classrooms and more interaction among pupils who usually would use phones rather than face-to-face communication. There was also improved focus and productivity, while two-thirds of schools said pupils made fewer requests to leave the classroom, presumably because they are not able to check their phones.
The data and feedback from Blackout Education’s 2025-26 impact assessment were sourced from more than 5,000 pupils in both state and private schools in England. The aim of the app is also to get pupils into healthier digital habits outside of school by teaching them to be more sensible about screen time use.
The company cautioned that many factors go into kids getting better grades, but the report does seem to gesture to the transformations that can happen when students aren’t worried about what’s going on on their smartphones.
This might be a pipe dream. Despite all the concerns and media coverage about the negative impacts of smartphone use and social media addiction in children, it doesn’t put off my kids. Liberty, who is only eight, wants a smartphone for Christmas, which, for many kids, seems to have become the norm.
According to a report published this year by Ofcom, 56 per cent of 10-year-olds have smartphones, rising to 83 per cent of 11-year-olds. This is a strong indication that starting secondary school is the tipping point for smartphone ownership.
According to the same Ofcom report, Children’s Online Experiences, children aged eight to 14, spend an average of one day a week online. This rises to two days a week for 15 to 17-year-olds.
None of this stops many of my kids’ friends from having smartphones. I’d love to say that that is not my problem, but the reality is that I’m continually getting messaged on WhatsApp group chats with their friends about everything from voting for the cutest puppy to the best slime toy – and passing my phone to my children for a “quick” chat.
But armed with the hard facts in this report, I feel less alone. This is added to by my recent experience of doing the rounds of multiple senior school visits, listening to headteachers talk about their school policy. In every school I have visited so far, smartphones are top of the agenda.
Things really are changing.
Last month, the government banned smartphones from schools across England.
This means different things in different schools. In some, smartphones are handed in like contraband every morning and staff carry out random bag checks to make sure nobody has sneaked one in. In one school, we were shown the secure, lockable pouches that pupils carry their phones around in until the end of the day when they exit the phone-free zone and tap the pouch against a special magnetic unlocking base. Another school only allows “brick” phones with no internet.
One pupil I spoke to told me that sometimes you still hear a smartphone go off in class, but after frantic bag searches, the phone is confiscated until the end of term (unless a parent demands it back).
There are also plans for a social media ban for under-16s to come into force potentially by 2027. This could now be enforced with passport and driving licence age verification checks, which take some of the burden off parents like me who spend our lives fighting with children about screentime usage.
There’s never been any doubt in my mind that, when it comes to accessing social media, smartphones are the number one enemy. This report makes that idea much harder to argue with, and it makes my resolve not to cave into pressure even stronger.
Of course I’ve got that niggling issue of other kids sharing their smartphones with my daughter on the bus home. That comes with the realisation that I can’t protect my children 100 per cent. But while parents who shunned smartphones five years ago often felt like lone outliers, now we are a growing army. Even if it is embarrassing for my children, I’ll be joining the basic Nokia mobile phone camp and getting Lola a brick phone so she can contact me on her way to and from school.
My Gen A kids feel hard done by for not having a smartphone. I’m braced for accusations of being a killjoy and to be told “I hate you, mum”. But, for me, the smartest phone for a child to have is not a smartphone. I am so relieved that having one is no longer a rite of passage.
