Ofsted has suggested that smartphones are unsuitable for primary school aged children and that they should not have unlimited access to the internet either.
According to The Times:
Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector, said in a discussion about access to online pornography and adult content that there was a great deal that could be done to “really limit” material to which young children were exposed.
“The first thing you can do is not give a child a smartphone when they’re too young,” she told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I’m very surprised when primary-aged children have smartphones, for example, and even in early secondary school. It’s really hard to manage that.”
Asked whether she thought no child under the age of 11 should be given a smartphone, she said: “I’m not comfortable with younger children having unlimited internet access.”
She conceded, though, that it was “not possible to totally control and contain adolescents’ lives”, saying it was the job of “schools, parents and society to make sure that children can steer past all of these undesirable influences”.
