Kate Middleton has issued a heartfelt warning to families about their use of screen time, and the link between using devices and the lack of connection.
Last week Prince William revealed that their children, Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, seven, don’t have mobile phones, in an attempt to encourage communication.
“We sit and chat, none of the children have phones,” he said in an appearance on The Reluctant Traveller with Eugene Levy, “[It’s something] we are really strict about.”
Now, Kate has told how she believes smart phones and other digital devices were causing an “epidemic of disconnection” which was impacting the development of young children.
In an essay published by the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which the Princess of Wales launched in 2021, she wrote that “we’re raising a generation that may be more ‘connected’ than any in history while simultaneously being more isolated, more lonely, and less equipped to form the warm, meaningful relationships that research tells us are the foundation of a healthy life.”
“The people who were more connected to others stayed healthier and were happier throughout their lives. And it wasn’t simply about seeing more people each week. It was about having warmer, more meaningful connections. Quality trumped quantity in every measure that mattered,” the mum-of-three wrote.
“We are less likely to have dinner together as a family – something we know has an enormous impact on child development. We are less likely to have friends over. We are less likely to join clubs and community groups,” she said.
Kate finished the essay with a message for parents.
“Look the people you care about in the eye and be fully there — because that is where love begins,” she wrote.
“For babies and children who are raised in attentive and loving environments are better able to develop the social and emotional skills that will allow them to grow into adults capable of building loving partnerships, families, communities. This is our children’s greatest inheritance.”
Prince William previously spoke about this issue in 2018.
“This generation are going to be the first to grow up fully immersed in mobile phones, social media, lots of stuff,” he told Channel Five news. “And yet our generation, the older generation, the parent generation, we’re completely left at, ‘How do we deal with this? Where do we go to? Where do you learn about how to look after your children’s digital world?’.”
Kate reiterated the family’s stance on phones in her essay.
“When we check our phones during conversations, scroll through social media during family dinners, or respond to e-mails while playing with our children, we’re not just being distracted we are withdrawing the basic form of love that human connection requires,” she wrote.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
