Most children sleep with mobile phone beside bed - Report

There are 57% who always have the phone beside their bed and 44% who feel "uncomfortable" if they are ever without a phone signal.

Extracts from an article by Sean Coughlan, BBC News family and education correspondent, 30 January 2020:

- More than half of children say they sleep with their mobile phone beside their bed, according to an annual survey of young people's use of media.

- The Childwise report found children getting mobiles at an earlier age, with most now having their own phone by the age of seven.

- The average time spent on mobiles by seven to 16-year-olds is three hours and 20 minutes per day.

- Researcher Simon Leggett says mobiles can "dominate children's lives".

- When phones are always so close at hand, as a "private and personal technology", Mr Leggett says it can be tough for parents to put limits on how children use them.

- The survey, based on interviews with 2,200 children in the UK aged five to 16, shows the pivotal place of the mobile phone in young lives.

Childwise reports: http://www.childwise.co.uk/reports.html