Half of the UK’s parents will spend an average of 88 hours of the school summer holidays looking at their phone for no reason, research has revealed.

A survey for Virgin Media O2 involving 16,000 people found that 48% of the parents of under-18s pick up their phone 30 or more times per day without a specific reason for doing so.

Most children told researchers that this leads to their parents missing important moments. They  said they wanted their parents to be present when talking or playing with them, or on family days out.

The parents admitted that they struggle to control their phone use, and three-quarters of them regularly pick up their phone without thinking.

The UK is banning social media for under-16s next year, and part of the reason is to reduce the time children spend on phones. Certain apps are designed to keep us hooked to our phones for longer. This research suggests that this is a problem that parents share, too.

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