Matt & Emma Willis: ‘We’ve Lost Our Kids To Smartphones’

‘We are worried about the impact that smartphones are having on our kids,’ Emma Willis tells the BBC. She and her Busted star husband Matt share three children – aged eight, 12 and 15 years – and so jumped at the chance to work with Channel 4 on its new documentary Swiped: The School that Banned Smartphones.

‘When we sat down with the parents at the school, our feelings were resonating back at us,’ Emma says. ‘So many parents feel like they’re losing their kids to their devices. We sit at home and say that we feel we’ve lost them.’ Here’s what happened when their kids relinquished their smartphones for 21 days.

Inside Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones

Jessica, Ryley, Miles, Liana, Scarlett, Harry in Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones. (Channel 4)

What Is Swiped About?

Across two parts, Swiped follows a group of Year 8 pupils at The Stanway School in Colchester – a secondary school that totally banned smartphones as part of an experiment in partnership with the University of York. The students we follow have no access to smartphones for 21 days, and their behavioural changes are monitored through a series of tests to trace the impacts on things like sleep quality and attention span. The teens also answer questionnaires assessing sleep, anxiety, depression, mood, stress, loneliness, enjoyment and social connectedness, while experts in the documentary include Dr Rangan Chatterjee, scientists, campaigners and politicians.

The docuseries comes hot on the heels of a social media ban for children in Australia – a consideration which is ‘on the table’ for UK officials, too. According to the UK government, 50 percent of nine-year-olds in the UK own a smartphone, rising to 90 percent by age 11. ‘Our lives these days revolve around our smartphones, and the thought of three weeks without them is quite honestly daunting, yet fascinating,’ Emma and Matt say. ‘The statistics on children’s smartphone use are beyond worrying so the time feels absolutely right for the issue to be addressed. We’re intrigued by the results of the experiment and hope it can spark change and have a lasting and positive impact on everyone.’

While efforts are being made to improve the safety of children online through the Online Safety Act 2023, the distraction a smartphone offers cannot be overstated. This latter issue is the focus for The Stanway School: 43 percent of UK teens use their smartphones during lessons, with one in four children using their phones in a manner resembling behavioral addiction. With findings revealed at the end of the two-part documentary, Swiped hopes to join – and spur on – the UK’s conversation around a smartphone ban for children under the age of 14 or 16.

‘The decision on when to give a child a smartphone is something every parent agonises over, and this bold and timely exploration will blow that debate wide open and potentially lead to more parents waiting for their kids to reach a greater level of maturity before handing over a smartphone,’ says Louisa Compton, who commissioned the documentary at Channel 4. ‘With so many children and teenagers increasingly tethered to their screens, it’s crucial we understand the impact that digital noise, constant connectivity, and peer pressure on social media platforms is having on young minds. We hope this experiment will spark a broader debate about the role of technology in our children’s lives and potentially inspire new approaches to digital wellbeing in schools across the country.’

Jessica getting tested after digital detox. (Channel 4)

Will Smartphones Be Banned For British Children?

This polarising debate is truly wide open: while First Minister John Swinney says he would consider a social media ban for under 16s, the move has been described as ‘a retrograde step’ that would ‘do more harm than good’ for British teens by child safety experts. On the matter, Peter Wanless, chief executive of children’s charity NSPCC, says: ‘We understand the concerns about children having access to social media that is fundamentally unsafe for them. However, children deserve to have age-appropriate experiences online rather than being cut off from it altogether.

‘To introduce a blanket ban on under-16s, as Australia has now done, would penalise children for the failures of tech companies to make their sites properly safe for young users and deliver age-appropriate experiences,’ he added.

So how did the test subjects in Swiped feel after their 21-day experiment? One Stanway pupil, Scarlett, noticed she did not experience ‘panic attacks or anxiety’ during the period without her phone. ‘When I had no phone I was completely fine,’ she tells the BBC. ‘I concentrated in lessons, I understood, I was more sociable, I was kind to people, I came downstairs and helped my family… We were playing board games every night.’ She now believes smartphones should be banned for all under 16s.

Another participant, Harry, similarly shares that not having his phone initially felt ‘dreadful’, but three weeks later noticed he was ‘more interactive’. ‘I’ve got to be careful what I’m looking at online,’ he added.

What Are The Benefits Of A Smartphone Ban?

Stopping smartphone use has a range of benefits for children – and all people. In the Stanway experiment, staff noticed a 17 percent drop in anxiety symptoms – an impact that was noticed swiftly. The students ‘slept on average an extra hour a day, which is going to have a huge impact on mental health,’ shares headteacher John Player. ‘There was an 18 percent reduction in symptoms relating to depression and a 3 percent improvement in working memory in just 21 days.’

After the success of the experiment, The Stanway School will run courses for parents in early 2025 helping them understand how smartphones and algorithms actually work.

Where To Watch Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones

Both episodes of Swiped: The School That Banned Smartphones are available to stream exclusively at channel4.com