Princess of Wales warns phones interrupt family life and risk ‘epidemic of disconnection’

The Princess of Wales has warned about the dangers of mobile phones interrupting family life and making people lonely.

She argues they are leading to an “epidemic of disconnection”

Kate says too many parents risk becoming disconnected from their children which can have a detrimental effect on them as they grow older.

She has co-authored an essay for her Centre for Early Childhood foundation, in which she says the quality of our relationships with our children and with each other “matters more than almost anything else”.

“People who were more connected to others stayed healthier and were happier throughout their lives”, Kate writes, referring decades-long study of adult development.

The more meaningful the connection it found, the better the outcome and the quality of the connection outweighs the quantity of them.

Her husband, Prince William, recently told an Apple TV documentary with the actor Eugene Levy that they have refused to allow their three children to have phones.

“None of our children has any phones, which we are very strict about”, said William as he spoke about family meal times where they can tell each other what “bothers” them.

The Princess of Wales has been a long-standing supporter of research into child development and made a visit to Oxford today to meet children and families.

She authored the new essay with a respected academic on these issues, Professor Robert Waldinger of Harvard University.

They wrote: “People who developed strong social and emotional skills in childhood maintained warmer connections with their spouses six decades later”.

But they warn that every social trend is moving in the opposite direction as “we have been investing less and less in each other”.

That means less likely to have a family dinner, to have friends over, or to join clubs.

And many people now find they have no one to confide in.

It’s leading to us “living increasingly lonelier lives” says the Princess which is “toxic to human health.

And the most affected age group according to Kate and Professor Waldinger? The 16-24 year olds.

Mobile phones and connected devices are mostly to blame they argue, because, as much as they bring many benefits, they also play “a complex and often troubling role in this epidemic of disconnection”.

In other words, the very phones which promise to make us more connected are actually having the opposite effect.

Constant ditraction and the fragmentation of focus prevent parents and families from giving each other “the undivioded attention that relationships require.”

Kate wrote: “We sit together in the same room while our minds are scattered across dozens of apps, notifications, and feeds. We are physically present but mentally absent, unable to fully engage with the people right in front of us”.

The result is that undivided attention is now the most difficult gift to offer others.

And when we turn to our phones at these times, “we are not just being distracted, we are withdrawing the basic form of love that human connection requires.”

It’s worse for today’s babies who have been born into a digital world.

Princess Catherine has spoken many time before about the how the first five years of life have the greatest impact on us as we grow older.

And when those five years are surrounded by love and safety, humans building the scaffolding needed to form healthy relationships later in life.

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“These skills will influence their success far more than academic achievements alone”, write the princess and professor, “and will touch every part of their lives”.

Kate’s suggestion for reversing these alarming social trends is to recognise that attention is something we can choose to give each other in every moment” and requires a “conscious effort” to do so.

And by looking those you care about “in the eye and be fully there”, argues the Princess of Wales, won’t just help to create a more loving environment for our children but a “a more loving world”.

This is the Talking Royals – our weekly podcast about the royal family, with ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship and Producer Lizzie Robinson.