Smartphones sold in Spain should carry a label warning users about their potential health impacts, experts have told the Spanish government, in a report that calls for doctors to ask about screen time during checkups.
As Spain pushes forward with a draft law to limit children’s exposure to technology, the 50-member committee of experts has also called for minors to have limited exposure to digital devices until they are 13 to mitigate what they see as a public health problem.
The experts’ nearly 250-page report, seen by the newspaper El País, recommends that children under the age of three do not have any exposure to digital devices, while children up to six years old should be allowed to access them only on an exceptional basis.
For children between six and 12, the use of so-called “dumb phones” – which do not have access to the internet and which are limited to calls – should be prioritised, as should offline activities such as sports.
The report called on the government to consider adding a warning label to digital devices sold in Spain, informing consumers of the health risks that some have linked to social media and digital devices, as well as the possible impacts that access to inappropriate content could have on the development of children.
Similar warnings should pop up on screens when certain apps or platforms are accessed, detailing the claims of health risks and the maximum recommended usage time, the report recommended.
It urged the government to name mobile phone addiction as a public health concern, a designation that would facilitate the development of preventive measures and early detection systems.
Questions about screen time and problematic behaviours should be incorporated into health consultations for all age groups, while “screening for depression, anxiety and use of technology” should be carried out regularly during medical checkups for adolescents.
The committee was assembled earlier this year in response to what Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, described as an “authentic epidemic” of online pornography consumption among children.
“The numbers are both very telling and very troubling,” Sánchez said in January. “One in four young people under the age of 12 – and nearly half of those under 15 – has had access, or currently has access, to pornography.”
In the end, though, the report took a wider view of the problem, looking not only at children’s access to pornography but their use of digital devices full stop. Their intervention comes amid a growing global debate over children’s exposure to technology, one that has led schools around the world to crack down on the use of mobiles in classrooms.
In France, a government-commissioned study said in April that children should not be allowed to use smartphones until they are 13 and should be banned from accessing conventional social media such as TikTok and Instagram until they are 18.
In Spain, where statistics suggest that a quarter of children have mobile phones by the age of 10 and nearly half of them by 11, the socialist-led coalition government in June set out draft legislation to protect minors, proposing that parental controls be installed by default on smartphones and that a national education campaign be rolled out to help children and teenagers navigate social media.
The draft bill also set out new data requirements that would, if enforced, raise the minimum age for opening a social media account from 14 to 16, while teachers and healthcare staff would be trained to spot children who are struggling with potential smartphone addictions.
The draft legislation, which is in the public consultation phase, is expected to be further refined by the report, which was compiled with input from organisations such as the European Association for Digital Transition as well as paediatricians and psychiatrists.
The report also hinted at the role of the wider environment in curtailing children’s exposure, calling for training programmes aimed at families, where experts could answer questions on how children can go online safely and how to limit access and exposure, as well as urging schools to remove any educational applications based on immediate gratification.
