A Financial Times column has warned Andy Burnham not to succumb to a populist techlash, arguing that losing the UK’s envied tech and life science status within Europe would be a crime. The intervention comes as a separate BBC podcast reopened the debate over children’s screen time, examining whether a voluntary agreement in an Irish town could offer a solution.
In Greystones, a community has pledged to delay giving children smartphones until they reach secondary school age. The initiative, called It Takes A Village, is led by the local school principal and backed by parents. The BBC’s Tech Life programme spoke to both the principal and a parent about the impact of screen time on younger children.
“FT warns Burnham against techlash as BBC explores screen time limits for children.”
The same podcast also featured a woman who, after surviving a late-night attack, was inspired to develop a wearable safety device. In a separate experiment, AI was let loose to run a cafe in Sweden, with the results yet to be fully assessed.
The warning from the Financial Times and the grassroots resistance to early smartphone use illustrate the growing tension over technology’s role in daily life – a balance the UK can ill afford to get wrong.