Investors urge Apple to stop kids getting addicted to their devices

Two major Apple shareholders who together own $2 billion of its shares have urged the tech giant to stop younger consumers from being addicted to their devices.

They warn that the iPhone is designed to be “as addictive and time-consuming as possible” which has “unintentional negative consequences.”

This could not only create a mental health crisis for the kids, but ultimately damage the Apple brand.

They cited studies stating that most American kids get their first smartphone at the age of 10 and spend an average of 4.5 hours a day on it.

This does not include the time the young people spend talking and texting on their devices.

78% of teenagers check their phones at least every hour and half of them claim to feel “addicted” to their phones.

In an open letter, activist investor Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) want the company to study the ill-effects of heavy usage on their customers’ mental health, and also create ways for parents to restrict children’s access to their mobile phones.

“There is a growing body of evidence that, for at least some of the most frequent young users, this may be having unintentional negative consequences,” said the letter.

It added that the “growing societal unease” is “at some point is likely to impact even Apple.”

Concern has been growing internationally over youngsters’ obsession with screen time.

In the US, users as young as 13 are being treated for digital technology addiction.

A ‘smartphone rehab’ centre near Seattle offers residential “intensive recovery programs” for teenagers.

Studies from outside the U.S. show that pre-teens and teenagers are anxious if they aren’t available 24/7 to their friends.

They are becoming unable to start and maintain relationships without the help of mobile phones, rather than through healthy social interaction.

Such addiction is associated with lack of sleep, higher stress levels that may lead to a greater (27% more, according to one research) risk of depression and suicide.

FOX Business’ Deirdre Bolton said of the investors’ letter, “They’re talking about it from a point of view of an investor, particularly Jana just saying, ‘Listen, if this is found to be true that these link kids to more anxiety, more depression, even in extreme cases suicide, that’s going to be bad for the stock.”

Apple already offers some parental controls. The ‘Ask to Buy’ feature, for instance, requires approval from parents before they can buy goods and services.

It has also shown it can be socially responsible. Last year it introduced a “do not disturb while driving” feature which senses when the user is behind the wheel and automatically stops them from getting notifications.

But Apple can do more, the investors urge.

It could modify the setup on an iPhone so parents can restrict screen time, and determine which social media services can be accessed.

They also suggest that Apple set up a committee of child development specialists to keep their engineers updated on the effects of their technology developments.

The letter says, “Apple can play a defining role in signalling to the industry that paying special attention to the health and development of the next generation is both good business and the right thing to do.

“There is a developing consensus around the world, including Silicon Valley, that the potential long-term consequences of new technologies need to be factored in at the outset, and no company can outsource that responsibility.”

Apple has not responded publicly to the letter.