The Department for Education must introduce clear screen-time guidance for schools

It happened by accident. No one voted for it, no one debated it, no parent was ever asked to consent to it, yet all too often, screens are now quietly replacing teachers.

The scale of it is laid bare in polling that SafeScreens conducted. It shows that nearly a million children, or 950,000 to be exact, are estimated to spend nearly every lesson on a one-to-one device.

A further 2.6 million are on screens every single day, among them are more than a quarter of a million primary school children, five, six and seven-year-olds, despite NHS advice that children of that age should have no more than two hours of screen time a day.

We are blowing through that limit before lunchtime, in the one place parents are entitled to assume their child is being taught.

What began as a temporary emergency measure during the pandemic has become permanently embedded, without scrutiny from parents, parliament or the professionals who should have been consulted. Devices have all but replaced textbooks; video shorts stand in for teacher instruction; ‘educational’ games masquerade as learning; and Googling and AI have become the default.

We are told this prepares children for a digital world, but in reality, reading, writing, deep thinking and the social skills that only come from human contact are being crowded out. This is not the future of education; it is a deeply alarming crisis hiding in plain sight.

We are not anti-technology. At SafeScreens, we speak for more than 150,000 parents, carers and educators, and we recognise there is a place for intentional technology properly taught computer science, coding, robotics. But that role should be defined and evidence-led, not the default setting of every classroom, every child, every day.

The evidence against screen use in schools is mounting. Key international benchmarks now show a correlation between rising screen use and falling test scores. Excessive screen time is linked to shorter attention spans, anxiety and depression, and sleep disrupted by on-screen homework. It is even damaging their eyesight.

Each additional daily hour raises the risk of myopia by around 21%, and more than half of primary staff now name device use as the single biggest factor harming school readiness.

And here is the figure that should stop every minister in their tracks: schools spend £900 million a year on EdTech. Nine hundred million pounds and not one of those products is required to prove it is safe, protects children’s data, or delivers any benefit over a non-digital alternative.

The industry has moved fast to capture our children, whilst the Government moves at snail’s pace, putting their safety and education at risk. That has to change.

SafeScreens asks for three things. First, early years and primary settings should be device-free by default, with parents given a statutory right to opt their child out of any screen-based activity, including homework.

Second, secondary schools should suspend student-facing EdTech and AI tools until their safety, privacy and educational benefit have been independently verified.

Third, the Department for Education must publish clear, evidence-based screen-time guidance for every school.

For too long, this debate has been led by those who profit from putting screens in front of children. Technology should support teachers, not replace learning; it is time for parents, teachers and the evidence to be heard.

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Jane Rowland is the co-founder of the organisation SafeScreens.

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