The debate on children’s use of smartphones can veer towards two extremes. There are those who see a generation made fragile by technology. They point to studies showing that social media does not just correlate with poor mental health; it causes it. Their solutions, lucidly expressed by American writer Jonathan Haidt, include banning under-16s from social media, prohibiting smartphones in schools and a new emphasis on risky, physical play.

The other extreme sees this as another misguided moral panic, such as the one once aimed at video games. Links to children’s mental health are unclear, argue Haidt’s critics. Even if teenagers’ phone use were damaging, it probably could not be radically curtailed anyway, given how essential social media has become to adolescence.

But there are possibilities for nuance and compromise. Sonia Livingstone is, like Haidt, a social psychologist. She leads research at the London School of Economics into children’s digital lives. Working with campaigner Baroness Beeban Kidron, Livingstone was influential in the UK’s groundbreaking 2023 Online Safety Act, which established that tech companies have a duty of care towards their users.