Should the UK introduce smartphone laws to help increase birth rates?
UK total fertility rate fell to 1.39 children per woman in 2025, the lowest on record, with 585,396 live births. Multiple 2026 studies link smartphone adoption and high-speed data rollout since 2007 to reduced in-person socialising, fewer romantic relationships and sharp drops in teen and young adult fertility across countries including the UK. Existing government measures focus on child phone safety and school bans rather than adult usage or fertility.
8 Opinions
What a silly idea. People don't want to have children for many reasons, smartphones will be at the end of this list.
The Smartphone is not the reason for declining birthrates, denying freedoms is not the way to resolve the issue
Smartphones are the least of our problems. We need a strong pronatalist culture, or we will cross the point of no return. The main driver is early family creation, so secure employment, easy access to housing, and incentives to start a family in your 20s, not your late 30s. Its urgent enough we might need to do drastic things, stack the tax code so if you don't contribute to the countries future with children, you pay more to subsidise someone else doing so.
What kind of 80 year old dinosaur suggests that phones are the primary reason for the low birth rate? Maybe try making life somewhat affordable for young people as a start?
Excessive smartphone use is undoubtedly having negative impacts on society, but I suspect the falling birth rate may have deeper underlying causes. I am not confident about parliament's ability to write sensible legislation on this issue. There is room for societal discussion and even education but we are not ready for legislation for adults.
An utterly bonkers idea. And sinister. There are many aspects of modern day living that have affected human interaction. Finance being one extreme pressure on relationships and the choice of whether to have children. Not knowing what kind of world they'll grow up in. This kind of b/s certainly doesn't decrease fears that it's a world with ever increasing state control. What next, state sponsored arranged marriages.
This is real handmaidenesque rhetoric here. If you care about birth rates etc, how about reducing the cost of living and ensuring the population have doctors, dentists, homes and access to work? Blaming smartphones is ridiculous.