Manufacturers urged to take action on mental health side effects of smartphone addiction

WITH growing concerns around the health impact of phone addiction, just who is responsible for ensuring teenagers are protected from the side effects?

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IT’S the first and last thing most teenagers use each day.

Whether responding to a text in bed, checking a Facebook update in the bathroom or Tweeting from a classroom, the mobile phone has become an obsession for today’s youth. Most would deny having a problem, while many parents feel powerless to control their children’s usage.

But with growing concerns around the mental health effects of smartphone addiction, just who is responsible for ensuring vulnerable young people are protected from the side effects?

A group of investors in the US is putting the onus back on one of the world’s biggest smartphone makers.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that an activist investor and pension fund had joined forces to urge Apple to take action against what many perceive to be a growing public health crisis.

Many people are concerned about the mental health effects of smartphone addiction.

Shareholders Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (Calstrs) have written to the company, suggesting the smartphone maker develop new tools to make it easier for parents to control their children’s phone use, and to study the impact of overuse on mental health.

“Apple can play a defining role in signalling to the industry that paying special attention to the health and development of the next generation is both good business and the right thing to do,” the letter said.

“There is a developing consensus around the world including Silicon Valley that the potential long-term consequences of new technologies need to be factored in at the outset, and no company can outsource that responsibility.”

The unusual campaign argues that by acting in a more socially responsible way now, Apple can lock in customer loyalty and protect its financial position in the long term.

The two investors are working with academics including Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, who coined the term “iGen” to refer to the new generation of smartphone-addicted children.

“It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades,” Ms Twenge wrote in an article in The Atlantic last year. “Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.”

Adelaide-based child psychologist and director of Developing Minds Kirrilie Smout says smartphone and other technology usage has skyrocketed in recent years, leaving vulnerable teenagers exposed to mental and other health risks.

“More and more teenagers are using technology more and more often and with that increase in usage comes problems,” she says.

“In our clinics we see about 250 teenagers a week and we know social media use or technology use is frequently a problem for young people.

“We would, as a matter of course, ask how technology use is influencing school, affecting their sleep and affecting moods. We’re not saying every young person has an issue but we now ask, as a matter of course, about technology use and we weren’t doing that even five years go.”

Research found phone use was associated with poorer sleep and mental health outcomes.

Last year, research from Griffith and Murdoch University found more than three quarters of Australian teenagers were using their phones well into the night, up from 15 per cent in 2011, and directly associated with poorer sleep, poorer mental health outcomes and lower self-esteem.

“Sleep is definitely a huge problem - we’re seeing those who use their phone late at night are sleep deprived - it’s definitely one of the top three problems,” Ms Smout says.

“There’s also problems related to school work and home work - the constant interruptions, constantly being interfered by the beep from the phone and temptation to look at something more interesting.

“There’s problems related to teenagers spending less time with family and doing less traditional activities like sport, feeling anxious and self conscious about how they look and come across - there’s a constant social comparison against how they stack up to the online ideal. There’s also a negative affect on mood, and for many vulnerable young people it can increase the incidence of anxiety and depression.”

The rapidly increasing influence, and potential side effects of technology have inspired a new global movement aimed at stemming the trend. In 2014, a group of former technology industry insiders and chief executives formed Time Well Spent - dedicating themselves to “reversing the digital attention crisis and realigning technology with humanity’s best interests”.

The rapidly increasing influence, and potential side effects of technology have inspired a new global movement aimed at stemming the trend.

The group is headed by former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris, who lobbies industry and political leaders to drive change.

“Our world-class team of deeply concerned former tech insiders and CEOs intimately understands the culture, business incentives, design techniques, and organizational structures driving how technology hijacks us,” the group’s website says.

“Together, we can get technology platforms to stop hijacking our minds and start putting our well-being first.”

Closer to home, a school principal in Perth last week convinced 600 students to give up their mobile phones in exchange for an alarm clock.

Presbyterian Ladies’ College principal Kate Hadwen wrote to parents in October proposing a bedroom ban on devices such as phones, televisions and laptops after lights out. She hopes the move will take off as a national or global movement.

Ms Smout says a joint effort is needed to protect teenagers from the side effects of technology overload, and encourages parents to take control early.

“We see pre-schoolers who are probably overusing their iPad, but it’s really occurring across all age groups,” she says.

“Maybe an eight year old doesn’t need a phone, if it’s just for gaming or social media - as soon as you expose a child to technology the job gets harder as a parent. Teachers and parents have a role to play and I think corporations do have a role to play in putting some limits or processes in place.”

Originally published as Manufacturers urged to take action on mental health side effects of smartphone addiction