Hearing that our MP has at last raised concerns about the use of smartphones in schools. Will she now lead the campaign to change the law about the deployment of 5G outside schools? 5G not only makes possible faster access to the internet on mobile phones but is also a tool that allows huge government overreach to usher in a new era of mass surveillance.

97% of children have mobile phones. Psychologist Jonathon Haidt exposes how the Gen Z “anxious generation” has “rewired” childhood causing an epidemic of mental illness. Girls’ anxiety and depression has doubled since 2010, and in girls aged 10 to 14, self-harming has tripled.

Girls’ completed suicide has gone up 134% and boys 109% since 2010.

Play-based childhood has been replaced by phone-based childhood.

After covid restrictions, teenage anxiety grew worse still. I hope our MP, with young children of her own, gives better guidelines intended to stop the use of mobile phones in school and the deployment of 5G near schools and residential areas.

Is mass surveillance, presumably intended to keep us “safe” from terrorism, really necessary in Stroud?

Marcus Blackett

Stroud