More than 150 health professionals say the rapid expansion of classroom technology is outpacing safeguards and putting children’s eyesight, language development and wider wellbeing at risk.
More than 150 clinicians have urged ministers to confront what they describe as a growing health problem linked to screen-led learning in schools, warning that children’s physical and developmental needs are being overlooked as digital devices become embedded in classrooms and homework. The open letter, addressed to Education Secretary Lucy Powell and Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, says the rapid expansion of educational technology has outpaced any meaningful child-focused safety scrutiny.
The signatories include GPs, eye specialists, hearing experts, paediatricians and speech and language therapists. They argue that there is no equivalent to the checks applied to many other products used by children, even though schools spend about £900 million a year on educational technology in England, according to the letter. The clinicians say that, in practice, millions of pupils are now spending much of the school day looking at screens, with some children using devices for longer in lessons than recommended screen-time limits for the whole day.
Their warning is not limited to eyesight. The letter points to research suggesting that children’s rates of short-sightedness have risen sharply since the 1960s, while also raising concerns about language development. It says a three-year-old spending three hours a day on screens could miss hundreds of conversational exchanges and more than 1,000 adult words each day, and it adds that more than two million children in the UK are struggling with speech and language difficulties. The clinicians also say around a third of children start school not ready to learn.
Particular concern is reserved for children with special educational needs and disabilities, whom the letter says are often directed towards screen-based learning precisely when they most need close adult support. Becky Foljambe, of the campaign group Health Professionals for Safer Screens, said health workers could not continue to “prescribe glasses and speech therapy” for problems they believe schools are worsening. Jane Rowland, from SafeScreens, said no other product is placed before millions of children without safety checks and called for an independent review of one-to-one devices and educational technology before further public spending.
The letter reflects a wider debate about the effects of screen time on children’s health and development. Guidance from Johns Hopkins Medicine links heavy screen use with issues such as poor posture, attention problems and other physical and psychological side effects, while NewYork-Presbyterian says excessive exposure may affect brain development and critical thinking. A review published in the journal Multimodal Technologies and Interaction likewise found that too much screen time can harm cognitive, language, physical and social-emotional development, and the US Surgeon General has warned that children and adolescents face risks to mental, educational and physical health from heavy use of screens. Against that backdrop, the clinicians are urging ministers to decide whether digital learning tools should face the same level of scrutiny expected elsewhere in child health and safety.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
