There is little evidence to back up your recent headline that “Smartphones are hurting children’s mental health” (Opinion, March 10).

Most academic experts — us included — have long accepted that teens’ relationship with technology is far more complicated.

Smartphones are used for many different activities. While some will cause harm to certain teenagers, some will be beneficial. Indeed, multiple academic reviews, as well as reports commissioned by England’s chief medical officer and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health reaffirm this stance.

The UK does not have strict screen-time recommendations largely because the impact of devices depends on their use and user. Yet this nuance has been ignored in favour of blaming technologies: generational scapegoats for societal concerns about the young.

In the 1940s, research and media were worried about children’s addiction to the radio. Their focus then moved on to TV, video games and now social media.

Simplistic narratives distract from complex networks of socio-economic, international, political and lifestyle factors (including, yes, technology use) that lead to poor mental health outcomes. To design regulations and recommendations fit for purpose we need to take this complexity into account.

While panics about modern technologies continue, we cannot have the necessary pragmatic discussions about how to keep kids safe online.

Dr Amy Orben
Psychologist, University of Cambridge

Tom Metherell
PhD Student, University College London

Letter in response to this letter:

​Remember what Jobs said about iPad dangers / From Gordon Bonnyman, Frant, East Sussex, UK