Children and screen time 

Smartphones are now banned by law in schools in England (DfE, 2026). Despite his own penchant for TikTok, Andy Burnham’s government is pressing ahead with the ban on social media for children under 16 (DfDCMS, 2026). Across the Atlantic, Meta has agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle the claim that its platforms have caused harm to children (BBC News, 2026).

All this is a recognition of the fact that children spend an alarming amount of their time looking at screens. Indeed, the Education Committee of the House of Commons reported in 2024 that a quarter of eight year olds had their own phone; that almost all children had their own phone by the end of primary school, and cited strong evidence that children’s learning is disrupted by the use of smartphones and computers (HoCEC, 2024).

Developing ‘looking’ to engage more deeply

There is a world of difference between looking at a screen as you encounter images momentarily before scrolling on to the next post, and using your eyes to engage with the real, present, physical world around you.

Developing the ability to look slowly and critically at people, objects, landscapes and works of art, and then to talk about what we see, is a critically important skill in the study of art, but also reads across into other subject areas and has the potential to bring lifelong enrichment to the individual.

Primary art lessons offer an untapped opportunity to develop ‘looking’

Children in primary art lessons can be invited to scrutinise a familiar object, such as a piece of fruit, and to describe what they see, in terms of shape, line, colour, shadow, texture.

They can compare how artists have treated that same object, whether that be a Cézanne still life, Magritte’s surreal man in a bowler hat with an apple for a face, or Arcimboldo’s bizarre paintings of faces composed of fruit and vegetables. 

The Son of Man (1964) by René Magritte

Considered ‘looking’ at both the object and other works of art will then serve to fuel the children’s imagination when they produce their own images, learning how to use the tactile qualities of physical materials to express their own perception of what they see.

The next time they encounter that piece of fruit they will ‘see’ it differently.  Cézanne understood this when he declared his ambition to astonish Paris with an apple.

Eye, mind and hand

These processes connect the eye, the mind and the hand, and lead the child to engage in a meaningful way with the physical world, and to produce a physical expression of their individual imagination, in a way which is infinitely more valuable, rewarding and long lasting than time spent looking at pixels on a few square inches of glass.

This connection between the eye, the mind and the hand speaks to us of the power of human creativity. The application of marks on the page of two different children to draw the same apple will be distinct and unique. It is a celebration of their own particular vision and individuality. 

We owe it to children to give them the opportunity – and sufficient time – to develop these skills, and primary art lessons are an ideal forum for doing so. 

Try this in your class

How to Lead It: Primary Art and Design explores ‘looking’ in depth, including using drawing to look more closely. Use the page extracts below to explore some of these drawing exercises with your class.

Naomi Pilling is a curriculum adviser for the Primary Knowledge Curriculum, part of the Knowledge Schools Trust. She developed and wrote their primary art and design curriculum, which is now taught in hundreds of schools, both nationally and internationally.

References 

• BBC News (2026), ‘Meta to pay up to $18bn to settle claims its platforms harm children’
• Department for Digital Culture, Media and Sport (DfDCMS) and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DfSIT) (2026), ‘Fact Sheet: New Rules to Protect Children Online’
• Department for Education(DfE) (2026), ‘Mobile Phones in Schools’
• House of Commons Education Committee (HoCEC) (2024), ‘Screen Time: Impacts on Education and Wellbeing’