Amy Orben and Tom Metherell write that there is little evidence to suggest smartphones are hurting children’s mental health (“Technology is a scapegoat for society’s teen traumas”, Letters, March 20).

To claim otherwise is, apparently, an example of using “simplistic narratives” to explain much more complicated “socio-economic, international . . . and lifestyle factors”.

It is of course worthwhile hearing the views of academics on this issue, but perhaps no less interesting to note the views of the man who actually created the iPhone. After all, it was Steve Jobs himself who, answering the question of whether he allowed his children access to the iPad, said: “Actually we don’t allow the iPad in the home. We think it’s too dangerous for them in effect.”

Jobs had a reputation for being coldly thorough. A co-founder of what became the Apple computer company once said of him that “if you had the choice of forming a relationship with Steve Jobs or an ice cube, you should choose the ice cube for warmth”.

It is not teenagers alone who are glued to their screens all day long, but the impact of that addiction may be greatest on younger minds. And psychologists may debate what that impact is. Still, it may be common sense to prefer the views of the man who actually designed these devices to be addictive.

Gordon Bonnyman
Frant, East Sussex, UK