Shropshire youngsters taking part in digital detox

Playing outdoors, reading and exploring seem to be things of the past for most modern children who have swapped conkers for Whatsapp, tag for consoles and hopscotch for Facebook.

But parents who feel their offspring spend all their time glued to phone screens, devices and tablet computers have found an ally in Shropshire headmaster Martin Stott who feels exactly the same way.

Pupils at the Old Hall School in Wellington have taken on a digital detox this week in a bid to see how they get on without their favourite electronic devices after school and over this weekend.

Addiction to computers and technology can take up to six hours of a child's day.

But what exactly are our children getting up to online and in the world of modern technology?

While most parents can't keep up with the latest mod cons, youngsters are tapping into cyber space, playing games live with people across the globe and sending free messages via Whatsapp with their friends.

Phone and tablet apps are designed for children of all ages including digital storytelling and games for all ages.

Tablets, phones and computers provide access to Instagram to share pictures and videos, free messaging service Whatsapp and Snapchat, to snap a photo or a video, add a caption, and send it to a friend.

Children aged five to 16 spend an average of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen compared with around three hours in 1995, according to market research firm Childwise.

Teenage boys spend the longest, with an average of eight hours.

Eight-year-old girls spend the least – three-and-a-half hours, according to the study.

Children are also now multi-screening – using more than one device at the same time, for example, watching TV while surfing the internet on a tablet.

Many parents believe that an obsession with smartphones, iPads and "screen time" is greatly harming our children.

Although the pupils have embraced technology in the classroom during the challenge, and have continued to learn basic programming and coding as part of the curriculum, the four to 11-year-olds have been finding alternatives to technology over seven days starting last Monday – such as talking to each other or playing cards.

Mr Stott says he had become concerned that children are growing up unable to read people's body language or facial expressions because they spend too much time concentrating on screens.

He added that a surprising number of primary schoolchildren owned phones and had social media accounts, as well as being allowed to play age-inappropriate games.

Youngsters as young as five have phones and TVs in their bedrooms – but pupils who volunteered to detox have been finding alternative pastimes.

Instead they have been playing outside, cycling, reading and doing jigsaws.

Fred Butler, nine, owns a phone, iPad, Xbox, a wi-fi, a computer, laptop, an iPad Mini, a PlayStation and headphones.

The Year 5 pupil usually spends around two hours after school using technology and around 12 hours every weekend.

He said the digital detox had been "really tough".

"It's been really hard for me," he said. "But I do spend too much time using technology. Instead, I've been playing outside, playing cricket and doing lots of fun things. I will probably do more things like this from now on but I have missed my phone and all my games."

However, Minay Gunawardena, 10, said he barely uses technology and found the detox to be an easy task.

He said: "I usually watch a bit of TV on a Monday and play on the Nintendo Wi for 30 minutes every Friday so I'm normally playing outside, at my cricket club, reading or helping my mum. It's more fun to do these activities than to be on technology."

Ella Jackson, also of Year 5, said she had almost gone two weeks without gadgets and screens because she had been in Wales with no wi-fi during half term.

She said: "I mainly use my iPod and my computer and I watch quite a lot of TV. I usually watch it everyday. It's been quite tough but it is fun not to use technology all the time."

A recent survey at the Telford school revealed that high usage pupils were hampering their progress in reading and were less likely to report as being happy than low usage pupils, Mr Stott said.

He said the high usage youngsters were more likely to have TVs and consoles in their bedrooms and have access to social media sites.

They were also more likely to take devices on family activities and to restaurants and play age inappropriate games.

Mr Stott said: "We hope that by sharing our findings with parents, they will help to encourage children to find alternative activities.

"In general, parents have been very positive about the initiative and there has been a great deal of debate among the children. It's important, however, that the children are choosing to temporarily opt out for themselves, rather than having their devices cunningly hidden by parents, although that's a tricky one to negotiate. If nothing else is achieved this week, at least we will have highlighted some of our concerns about digital device dependency and encouraged the children to think about how they use their time.

"It erodes family time and they're missing out on messages from body language and facial expressions from those around them."

The idea of digital detox has already taken hold in America.

Camp Grounded in Anderson Valley, California, allows no access to phones, tablets, and other technology, with campers also banned from talking about work.

A digital device detox centre to rehabilitate phone and internet addicts has opened in Wales.

"Unplugged Weekend" is nestled in the heart of the Brecon Beacons and runs festival-style weekends to help phone obsessives reconnect with real life.