More than 3,500 Kent parents intend to not give their child a smartphone before the age of 14, says the mum behind the county’s drive to keep the devices out of young hands, as new Netflix hit Adolescence shines a light on dangers to teens.

Felicity Winkles from Folkestone says the number of families in the county flocking to join the Smartphone Free Childhood Parent Pact locally has ballooned - with Kent now the eighth highest county in the UK for the number of parents making the digital promise.

The dangers posed to young people by smartphones and exposure to the internet have hit the headlines again this week following the release of hard-hitting series Adolescence, which stars Herne Bay actor Ashley Walters.

The four-part drama, which follows a family’s anguish after their 13-year-old son is arrested on suspicion of murdering a female classmate, explores the influence of ‘incel-culture’ and has prompted the writer of the series, Jack Thorne, to say he believes smartphones should be treated like cigarettes and banned until children reach the age of 16.

Thorne has demanded the government take ‘radical action’, like that being seen in countries like Australia, to regulate children’s access to social media, which he fears can often see algorithms take them to ‘dark places’.

The Smartphone Free Childhood Movement - that wants to see smartphones banned before the age of 14 and social media restrictions for children until they’re 16 - launched last year and aims to empower families to join forces to combat the peer pressure that they say often results in children getting devices at increasingly younger ages.

Felicity who is a regional leader for the movement and has two young daughters herself, says interest in the group has hit some significant milestones in recent weeks - including 100,000 sign-ups nationally and families from more than 400 Kent schools now involved - with numbers still growing at pace.

Among the primary schools leading the charge in Kent are Claremont Primary School in Tunbridge Wells, Sussex Road Community Primary School in Tonbridge and Sandgate Primary School in Folkestone where up to 50% of families have all agreed to the pledge.

Felicity said: “It’s been brilliant to see so many parents in Kent feeling emboldened to wait just a few more years to get their child a smartphone.

“The more of us that sign it, the more powerful it gets, because if your child knows that they’ve got a bunch of friends with simple phones too, they’re happy to wait.”