Arts & Sciences' David Dearlove Directs Retro PSA for Smartphone Free Childhood

With the news this week that the UK Government is set to ban social media for under-16s, the grassroots movement Smartphone Free Childhood (SFC) has released a timely film that highlights the scale of the challenge facing parents and families today.

Much like the PM’s announcement of the plan, the pro bono work strikes a nostalgic tone. Unlike Keir Starmer, however, it’s also rather funny. Created and directed by David Dearlove through production company Arts & Sciences, the film recreates a setting that will be familiar to older viewers but alien to younger ones: a video rental store.

Inside the Blockbuster-style shop, aptly named 24/7 Reels, a father innocently asks for recommendations for his two kids, to which the clerk responds by suggesting a string of wildly inappropriate titles promoting the manosphere, misogyny, bullying, internet pornography and still more unseemly behaviour.

Given the complex and divisive nature of this issue, you have to hand it to Arts & Sciences for conveying SFC’s viewpoint in such stark and unambiguous terms. Speaking about the campaign, SFC co-founder Joe Ryrie said: “Childhood has changed faster in the last 15 years than at any point in living memory. Yet none of us were consulted.

“We weren’t asked whether we wanted smartphones, social media algorithms, and the business models behind them to become such a powerful force in children’s lives. This film is an invitation to pause and ask a simple question: Is this really the kind of childhood we want?”

While it’s hard to argue with that assessment of the current situation, or Dearlove’s view that “children deserve better protection online”, the debate over how far governments should intervene in young people’s digital lives is unlikely to disappear any time soon.

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