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Impact of social media on children’s mental health a 'real tragedy for our time', says new private schools chief 

The Telegraph: Performing is in Shaun Fenton’s blood. He may be the new leader of Britain’s top private schools, but he is also the son of 1970s rock star Alvin Stardust, his mother was a dancer and his brother is an award-winning DJ and record producer.

“The advantage my dad always had was that people had chosen to turn up by buying a ticket. The disadvantage for teachers is the students haven’t any choice. That’s why teaching is a performance art,” he explained, sitting in his study in Reigate grammar school where he is head teacher.

“You have a different audience seven times a day that you have to enthral, inspire, engage and help to learn as well as enjoy your lesson.”

It is a vocation that has taken him from PPE at Oxford University (the first in his family to stay on at school beyond 15) to a career in a state comprehensive (the Ridings was then seen as the toughest in Britain), state grammar, state academy and now chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistress’ Conference (HMC), overseeing schools from Eton and Harrow to Manchester and Reigate.

No previous chairman has had such a breadth of school experience to draw on to articulate a vision for HMC. In an interview to open his year in charge, he outlined that vision: it will focus on tackling the rise in child mental ill health, helping children cope with social media and ensuring HMC schools play a key part in helping disadvantaged pupils.

Social media, he believes, is contributing to a mental health crisis among children that is “a real tragedy for our time”. He said emerging evidence pointed to the constant pressure to be online and incessant stream of negative information damaging children’s mental health.

“The tragedies in the world, the problems in conflict areas, the disease, issues causing mass migration are in the consciousness of young people more than ever before,” he said.

“They are now on their phone feed constantly, every 10 seconds. Those complexities are very different to what they have been for young people before.

“The technology also chases children into what were private spaces in their family homes and can create new opportunities for anxiety, bullying and destruction.”

Endorsing The Daily Telegraph’s campaign for a statutory duty of care on the industry, he said it was time for social media firms to do more to provide “a safe and managed” environment online for children which could include “healthy” time limits.

He also backed new laws to rein in the firms, saying our relationship with social media needed to be “recalibrated.” “The platform providers have a part to play and I am sure there is a role for regulation,” he said.

He was, however, concerned mental ill health, unlike physical illness, was still shrouded in stigma which meant children found it difficult to tell parents, teachers or carers they were suffering. “We need to normalise it to encourage people to come forward and get support,” he said.

Education – and in particular “character education” – was critical in helping children develop mental resilience to handle crises, he said. For social media, they also needed a “tool kit” of tips such as no phones in bedrooms to ensure a “healthy” approach.

“Part of the ethos of an independent school is helping children to embrace first match nerves, rise to the challenge of speaking in front of 100 people, or having stickability on a hike in November for a Duke of Edinburgh award,” said Mr Fenton >>>