One thing stops us from prising teens from their phones: peer pressure | Martha Gill

The rise in mental health problems in young people should force politicians to act

Across the rich world, a problem emerges. Children are spending more time hunched over iPhones working on their personal brands and less time building mud huts in the woods with their friends. Social stakes have got higher: the right post, message, or photo cangive you a huge blast of approval; one mis-step could make you an outcast.

Playful and elastic real-life interactions have been replaced by unforgiving virtual hierarchies, in which your position is precisely quantified, recorded and made tomatter more.