The minute a child gets a smartphone they will disappear into them. Not phoning anyone, but connected to Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Discord etc. The child that once played, or sat downstairs and chatted with you, will now be up in their bedroom alone, illuminated by blue light and connected to everything the world has to offer; good, bad, and the very ugly

"When you say ‘yes’ to everything, your ‘yes’ has no value. People see that it has no value and they don’t value you, because they realise you don’t value yourself. Respecting yourself enough to say ‘no’ when you don’t want to do something is vital if you want others to respect you"

Try to think about being together in a different way during these short few years. Try to find an activity that both of you can enjoy.

We need sophisticated digital literacy in schools as a matter of urgency. We also have to hold Snapchat and all the other social media platforms to account

I’d love, just for once, a politician to explain to their electorate why they have had to wait for so long for the Mental Health Bill to be enacted

Pornography today promotes violence against women: our boys are being fed harmful material telling them that girls like to have consent taken from them

 The driver in front of me was bouncing all over the road, in and out of the white line, it looked like the driver was either drunk or having a medical emergency. When I drove passed, it was a girl in her early twenties scrolling through videos.

"Any attempt to get smartphones out of schools should be welcome. They cause significant problems. They rob childhood. They disrupt learning, and impact mental health. There is a growing body of evidence on the damage these phones are doing to our children."

ASD children, in my experience, may be very good at hiding the distress that the school environment is causing them

"The research on the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions on our children’s development has yet to be fully understood. But those working in schools, and in psychology, see the residual scars every day of dealing with teenagers and families."