Why the next generation deserves a childhood offline

Once a week, on Saturday mornings, we Jews listen to a public reading from our ancient sacred text, the Torah, which is copied out in Hebrew, by hand, on a very long and heavy parchment scroll.

So for the duration of the service, for a brief hour and a half, we ignore our mobile phones.

But for most of the summer, we'll all be scrolling down our feeds, not scrolling through the Torah.

I'm astonished by what the invisible algorithm inside my phone feeds to my eyes and ears.

It seems to know more about me and my interests than I know about myself.

An astonishing blessing, bringing the whole world literally under my fingertips.

Yet also with the potential to be a terrible curse, particularly to children, whose delicate minds are still growing.

Rabbi David Hulbert encourages everyone to enjoy summer away from mobile phones (Image: Rabbi David Hulbert)

Smartphones can expose vulnerable children to extremist political ideas, to violence, to porn, and to sites promoting self-harm, anorexia, and suicide.

Even more dangerous, the clever algorithms are designed to be powerfully addictive, as every parent will know.

Children waste hours on their phones when they could be socialising with other kids, reading, playing sport, singing, dancing, or just doing nothing.

They are also losing precious sleep.

So much of the stuff on our phones is cleverly designed to make us crave what we haven't got - the desire to acquire - beautiful things, clothes, food, holidays, or a perfect body.

Remember the 10th Commandment -‘Thou shalt not covet...’ Because none of these things will really make our lives any better.

So personally, I feel glad that our departing Prime Minister has decided to ban access to smartphones for children under-16.

Just as we don't let them drink, smoke, drive, or have sex until they’ve reached an age of greater maturity.

John Lennox, an Oxford professor and committed Christian, has warned that we're in danger of ‘raising children to worship the machine - turning AI into a god created by humans'.

That's breaking the second Commandment, against idolatry.

Both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope have also voiced their concerns about AI and its potential to fundamentally alter individuals, society, and our children.

So let's all try to enjoy the blessings of this long, hot summer, out in nature, in the open air, by the sea—but far away from the curse of our insistently demanding phones.

• Emeritus Rabbi David Hulbert is from East London & Essex Liberal Synagogue.