Busted star Matt Willis has said he found parts of a new Channel 4 documentary exploring the impact of smartphones on children’s behaviour “absolutely shocking and terrifying”.
The TV and music star, 41, and his wife, Emma Willis, co-host the two-part special, Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones, in which they challenge a group of year eight pupils, and themselves, to give up their phones for 21 days.
There are so many things that shocked me that I hadn't thought about with a smartphone, because I thought it was just social media
Speaking at a panel discussion at the Science Gallery London, Matt said of the documentary: “There are so many things that shocked me that I hadn’t thought about with a smartphone because I thought it was just social media.
“Social media gets a bad rep and you kind of hear about that, and you’re like that’s bad. But even having that device and a search engine is worrying because you can get an answer which is not necessarily true or not the right thing.
“Google isn’t always right. So, it’s terrifying. And the stuff about porn, which we get into a lot more in episode two, is absolutely shocking and terrifying for kids as well.
“We go in as first-time users and get shown what any kid going onto that site (a very well-known pornographic site) would be shown. And it’s often their first time seeing sex and they will think that is what sex is.”
The scary thing is that there are zero regulations that really mean anything or have any weight. And if we live in a world of tech, why should kids be alienated from that world
Emma, who shares three children with Matt, said governments and tech companies need to make change happen in a “multi-pronged approach”.
“Why should kids be banned from having things that can actually help their lives?”, she said.
“But what they should have is something that is safe for them to go to, and the only people that can do that are those people. What we can do is put the pressure on.”
She continued: “The scary thing is that there are zero regulations that really mean anything or have any weight.”
“And if we live in a world of tech, why should kids be alienated from that world?” she added.
“They need to be made safe in that world. So how do we do that? And for that, we need to look at tech companies and people that create apps to make their products safer for kids.”
In the social experiment, 30 pupils aged 12 to 13 from Stanway School in Colchester gave in their phones and iPads and were not allowed to use laptops unless it was for schoolwork for 21 days.
In conjunction with The University Of York, the pupils underwent a series of tests that monitored their behavioural changes.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in July that although he thinks the Government needs “to look again” at what content children are accessing online, he does not support “simply banning” phones for children under 16.
Earlier this year, the Department for Education issued non-statutory guidance to schools in England intended to stop the use of mobile phones during school hours.
A set of new legal powers in the Online Safety Act commences from the start of 2025.
The Act will see new safety duties placed on social media platforms for the first time, requiring them to protect users, and in particular children, from harmful content.
Episode one of Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones will air on Wednesday December 11 at 8pm on Channel 4.
