‘The crux of all evil’: what happened to the first city that tried to ban smartphones for under-14s?

It’s a year since teachers in St Albans asked parents not to give younger children smartphones. How successful have they been? What do the kids think about it? And has it made the adults think about their own ‘addiction’?At 3.12pm on a sunny spring afternoon in St Albans, Yasser Afghen reaches for the iPhone in his jeans pocket, hoping to use the three minutes before his son emerges from his year 1 primary class to scroll through his emails. As he lifts the phone to his face, M