Ciara Kelly: Children are out of their depth with smartphones in exactly the same way they’d be out of their depth with booze

Smartphone bans on kids are failing to equip children for healthy use of technology, according to a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, but are being applied “despite a lack of evidence on their effects”. This only goes to show that experts and evidence are still entirely capable of missing the big picture when it comes to how they assess things. Of course, children and the rest of us need to learn how to manage the online world in a competent and safe way — no one is suggesting that a ban for kids should extend into adulthood or preclude them learning about the internet or social media.

But if learning to use something perilous, in a healthy way, meant we should start them on it young, then why aren’t we giving kids a couple of beers at the weekend in primary school so they learn how to drink safely?.