Paloma Faith: Why I won’t be giving my children smartphones

Paloma Faith has said her eight-year-old has stopped begging her for a smartphone now she’s installed a landline that her child can use to prank call her friends.

The singer and mother-of-two is one of a growing number of celebrities who have today put their name to a 100,000-strong movement of parents committed to giving their children a smartphone-free childhood.

Backing the campaign, she said: “I actually allowed my children to occasionally look at my smartphone and that was fine for a time as I’m a single mum, and sometimes needs must. But when I took it away, the difference was instant.

“They slept better, they were more focussed, more imaginative and much better company – no tantrums, no disasters, just a brilliant childhood. My eight-year-old was begging me for one over and over, and when I installed a landline she stopped entirely.

“Now she loves prank calling all my friends just as I did when I was eight. I’m glad she won’t be littered with all the superficial rubbish that a smartphone will bring in her teen years too.”

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The singer co-parents her two children, aged eight and three, with her ex-husband Leyman Lahcine. She joins Joe Wicks, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jamie Redknapp and Sara Pascoe among others who have signed up to limit their children’s smartphone use.

The pact commits families to delay giving their children smartphones until at least the age of 14 and social media till 16.

Over 100,000 people have now signed up for the commitment, organised by campaigners from Smartphone Free Childhood.

According to research published by regulator Ofcom last year, 24 per cent of five-to-seven-year-olds now own a smartphone, while three-quarters use a tablet.

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The number of five-to-seven-year-olds who go online to send messages or make voice or video calls has been rising – from 59 per cent in 2023 to 65 per cent in 2024.

The use of social media sites by children is also increasing, as is online gaming, Ofcom research found.

The government has asked the University of Cambridge to run a feasibility study into the impact of smartphones and social media after MPs pushed for stronger regulation on smartphone use.

The Safer Phones Bill, brought by Labour MP Josh MacAlister, had initially proposed raising the digital age of consent from 13 to 16 but this has been watered down to secure government support. Ministers have instead committed to research the issue and report back.

Conservative MP Kit Malthouse, a former education secretary, accused the government of having “dithered, diluted and capitulated” on the issue.

Daisy Greenwell, director of Smartphone Free Childhood, said: “Over the last decade, childhood has changed dramatically due to the rise of smartphones, and it has fast become the defining parenting challenge of our time.

“Families have been put in an impossible position by the lack of regulation around Big Tech, forced to choose between either getting their kids a smartphone which they know to be harmful, or leaving them isolated the only one without.

“The overwhelming response to the Parent Pact shows just how many families are coming together to say ‘no’ to the idea that children’s lives must be mediated by Big Tech’s addictive algorithms.”