Children limiting own smartphone use to manage mental health, survey finds
Children are increasingly taking breaks from their smartphones to better manage their mental health, personal safety and concentration spans, research has revealed,They are reacting to growing concerns that spending too much time online can be harmful by taking control of their own social media and smartphone use rather than relying on parents to enforce limits, according to experts,The number of 12- to 15-year-olds who take breaks from smartphones, computers and iPads rose by 18% to 40% since 2022, according to the audience research company GWI, drawing on a survey of 20,000 young people and their parents across 18 countries,Prof Sonia Livingstone, the director of the LSE’s Digital Futures for Children centre, said these findings were echoed in soon to be published research, which has found that children and young people are trying various options to manage how their online lives affect their wellbeing, including taking a break from social media, distracting themselves from negativity online, seeking more positive experiences on the internet and in some cases quitting social media altogether,Livingstone said: “Children have got the message – from their parents, the media, their own experiences – that too much social media isn’t always good for them.
“So they are experimenting with different ways of protecting their wellbeing, without wanting to give up on social media entirely,I’m sure they’re talking to each other about what works for them and figuring out the way ahead,”Daisy Greenwell, the co-founder of Smartphone Free Childhood, said she was increasingly speaking to young people who were “questioning the idea that growing up online is inevitable”,She said: “We regularly hear from teenagers who are exhausted by the pressure of being permanently connected and who are choosing to step back for their own mental health,“Many of them are waking up to the fact that these platforms aren’t neutral.
They’re designed to manipulate attention … They are realising that their time, focus and self-esteem are being monetised by some of the world’s biggest companies.Taking a break has become an act of rebellion.” This is reflected in Ofcom research.A report from 2024 found that a third (33%) of eight- to 17-year-olds who are online think their screen time is too high, while another found that 47% of 16- to 24-year-olds who use social media deactivate notifications and used “do not disturb” mode, an increase from 40% in 2023, and compared with 28% of older adult users.Thirty-four per cent of younger people were more likely to take a deliberate break from social media (compared with 23% who said they would not do this), 29% would delete apps because they spend too much time on them (compared with 19% who would not), and 24% would delete apps for their mental health (compared with 13% who would not).
David Ellis, a professor of behavioural science at the University of Bath, noted that teenagers may have discovered the features that let people control their time on social media and smartphones more quickly than their parents – though evidence that these features change behaviour in the long term was mixed, he said.Ellis said: “If someone is going to spend less time sitting in front of a screen and instead increase their levels of physical activity, then most people would probably view that as a net positive.On the other hand, that time could be replaced by something else less beneficial.”Young people aged 18 to 25 who spoke to the Guardian previously said they felt their “parent’s generation didn’t have a clue” and had granted them too much access to smartphones too young, while several said they would restrict access for their own children until their late teens.A recent poll found that almost half of young people would rather live in a world where the internet did not exist and a similar proportion would support a digital curfew, while more than three-quarters felt worse about themselves after using social media.
The GWI research also found that social media addiction ranked among parents’ top three fears for their children from a list that included climate change, war and the cost of housing, while 8% said they had become tougher about screen-time limits after watching the hit Netflix show Adolescence about the dangers of online misogyny.
World must be more wary than ever of China’s growing economic power | Phillip Inman
China is pulling every lever at its disposal to counter Donald Trump’s economic blockade, and it’s working.Trade is recovering after the massive hit from Washington’s wide-ranging tariffs on Beijing’s exports.According to data provider Macrobond and Beijing-based consultancy Gavekal Dragonomics, exports to the US were down by about $15bn (£11bn) in May, but up by half that figure to other countries that trade with the US. Exports to African countries have also risen sharply.Meanwhile, Chinese officials are poised to strike deals to deepen economic cooperation with countries ranging from Brazil and South Africa to Australia and the UK
‘The Co-op won’t defeat me’: Brighton shop owners fight against eviction
For Louise Oliver, it is the work of Charles Dickens that best describes her current predicament. “It’s a tale of a woman who has her lovely old shop taken over by a nasty piece of work,” she said, evoking Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop.In this instance, the identity of this “nasty piece of work” may come as a surprise. In 1844, three years after Dickens published the tragic tale of Little Nell, the world’s first successful cooperative shop opened in Rochdale. It put power into the hands of the community, who were sick of being fleeced by the powers above
Teach First job applicants will get in-person interviews after more apply using AI
One of the UK’s biggest recruiters is accelerating a plan to switch towards more frequent face-to-face assessments as university graduates become increasingly reliant on using artificial intelligence to apply for jobs.Teach First, a charity which fast-tracks graduates into teaching jobs, said it planned to bring forward a move away from predominantly written assignments – where AI could give applicants hidden help – to setting more assessments where candidates carry out tasks such as giving “micro lessons” to assessors.The move comes as the number of people using AI for job applications has risen from 38% last year, to 50% this year, according to a study by the graduate employment specialist Bright Network.Patrick Dempsey, the executive director for programme talent at Teach First, said there had been a near-30% increase in applications so far this year on the same period last year, with AI playing a significant role.Dempsey said the surge in demand for jobs was partly due to a softening in the labour market, but the use of automation for applications was allowing graduates to more easily apply for multiple jobs simultaneously
‘Workforce crisis’: key takeaways for graduates battling AI in the jobs market
ChatGPT can certainly write your university essay – but will it take your job soon after? Rapid advances in artificial intelligence have given rise to fears that the technology will make swathes of the workforce redundant.Graduates are seen as particularly vulnerable because entry-level jobs such as form-filling and basic data entry are strongly associated with the “drudge work” that AI systems – which perform tasks that typically have required human intelligence – could do instead.Over the past two and a half years the availability of such positions has dropped by a third, and last month it was reported that graduates are facing the toughest UK job market since 2018.The Guardian spoke to some of the UK’s biggest recruitment agencies and employment experts for their views on the impact of AI on current and future opportunities for those entering the jobs market. Here are six key takeaways from what they said:A shifting graduate labour market is not unusual, said Kirsten Barnes, head of digital platform at Bright Network, which connects graduates and young professionals to employers
Tour de France 2025: Tim Merlier wins stage nine as Van der Poel break falls short – as it happened
Tour de France 2025 stage nine race report:Thank you for following the blog and getting in touch. It ended up being quite an exciting day! After a breakaway by Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Mathieu Van der Poel and Jonas Rickaert, where the duo stayed away for the majority of today’s stage, the peloton caught the attackers and the day ended in a bunch sprint. Tim Merlier of Soudal Quick-Step took his second stage win of this year’s Tour, but Van der Poel and Rickaert were successful in getting the latter on to the podium with a most combative award.Elsewhere, Elisa Longo Borghini has retained her Giro d’Italia Women title, holding on to the pink jersey she claimed on Saturday’s queen stage as the race concluded at Imola. You can read the full race report here:A race report of today’s Tour de France stage will be posted here shortly
Fremantle are easy targets but deserve respect for hitting back | Jonathan Horn
With blood still spurting out of his head, and resembling John Rambo under Soviet interrogation, Andrew Brayshaw still managed a semblance of humility, of calm and of coherence in an on-field interview on Saturday night. Brayshaw is that kind of player and it had been that kind of game. It had been an intense, occasionally spiteful contest, the sort of game Fremantle have coughed up too many times under coach Justin Longmuir. But they were the more composed and tougher side against the highly-rated Hawthorn. The Dockers laid more than 100 tackles, 14 of them coming from Brayshaw
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