Big investors have called on Apple to develop software that limits how long children can use its smartphones.<\/p>\n
The call came from two investment groups that hold $2bn (\u00a31.48bn) of Apple stock between them.<\/p>\n
A letter calling for the digital locks, signed by Jana Partners and a California teachers’ pension fund, was sent to the iPhone maker this weekend.<\/p>\n
The call for better controls was welcomed by academics studying youngsters’ use of technology.<\/p>\n
Design conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) called on Apple to consider the impact excessive use of smartphones had on the mental health of young people.<\/p>\n The two are worried that if Apple does not address growing concerns about smartphone use, its stock market value and general reputation could be damaged.<\/p>\n According to a Reuters report, half of US teenagers believe they are addicted to their mobile phones\u00a0and feel the need to respond immediately to messages.<\/p>\n Sonia Livingstone, professor of social psychology at the London School of Economics, said it was good to hear the call from the investors.<\/p>\n She added there needed to be one voice between device manufacturers, social media companies and internet service providers (ISPs) on the issue of smartphone use.<\/p>\n “For a long time the concern has been to not do anything that would impact a friction-free experience,” Prof Livingstone told the BBC.<\/p>\n “Everyone would like to have a well balanced life, but the way that devices are designed currently causes a lot of conflict with parents.”<\/p>\n She called on Apple and other device manufacturers to have all notifications on smartphones switched off by default and for the creation of occasional reminders that urged youngsters to take a break from their phone after long periods of use.<\/p>\n Prof Livingstone, who also runs a\u00a0parenting blog, did question the use of the term “addiction” for those who spend a long time using a smartphone, however.<\/p>\n “Everyone will agree that there is excessive use and even obsession with smartphones, but I don’t believe it’s addiction,” she said.<\/p>\n Apple has not yet responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Big investors have called on Apple to develop software that limits how long children can use its smartphones. The call came from two investment groups that hold $2bn (\u00a31.48bn) of Apple stock between them. A letter calling for the digital locks, signed by Jana Partners and a California teachers’ pension fund, was sent to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":389745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[224],"class_list":["post-389740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-apple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/389745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}