Giving your child a smartphone is like “giving them a gram of cocaine”, a top addiction therapist has warned.

一位顶级的成瘾治疗师警告说，给孩子一部智能手机就好像“给他们一克可卡因”。

Time spent messaging friends on Snapchat and Instagram can be just as dangerously addictive for teenagers as drugs and alcohol, and should be treated as such, school leaders and teachers were told at an education conference in London.

在伦敦一次教育会议上，学校领导和教师们被告知，在Snapchat和Instagram上花时间给朋友们发消息对青少年来说很上瘾，这种上瘾的危险性可能和毒品及酒精类似，应被同样对待。

Speaking alongside experts in technology addiction and adolescent development, Harley Street rehab clinic specialist Mandy Saligari said screen time was too often overlooked as a potential vehicle for addiction in young people.

在与技术上瘾和青少年发展的专家一起交谈时，哈利街戒瘾诊所的专家曼迪-萨利嘉里说，屏幕时间也是让年轻人上瘾的潜在媒介，但常被人们忽视。

“I always say to people, when you’re giving your kid a tablet or a phone, you’re really giving them a bottle of wine or a gram of coke,” she said.

她说：“我经常对人们说，当你给孩子平板电脑或手机时，其实你是给了他们一瓶酒或者一克可卡因。”

“Why do we pay so much less attention to those things than we do to drugs and alcohol when they work on the same brain impulses?”

“这能带来和毒品与酒精一样的大脑刺激，但为什么和毒品及酒精相比，我们对此却如此忽略呢?”

Her comments follow news that children as young as 13 are being treated for digital technology – with a third of British children aged 12-15 admitting they do not have a good balance between screen time and other activities.

此前有新闻称，接受数字技术上瘾治疗的孩子年龄低至13岁。英国12到15岁的孩子中有三分之一承认他们没有在屏幕时间和其他活动之间保持良好平衡。

“When people tend to look at addiction, their eyes tend to be on the substance or thing – but really it’s a pattern of behavior that can manifest itself in a number of different ways,” Ms Saligari said, naming food obsessions, self-harm and sexting as examples.

萨利嘉里女士拿食物上瘾、自我伤害和色情短信举例说：“当人们关注上瘾时，总是把焦点放在实质性的事物上面，但其实这是一种行为模式，可以以不同的方式表现出来。”

Concern has grown recently over the number of young people seen to be sending or receiving pornographic images, or accessing age inappropriate content online through their devices.

近来，人们越来越关注通过手机发送或接收色情图片、或者在网络上浏览与年龄不相符的内容的年轻人数量。

Ms Saligari, who heads the Harley Street Charter clinic in London, said around two thirds of her patients were 16-20 year-olds seeking treatment for addiction – a “dramatic increase” on ten years ago - but many of her patients were even younger.

伦敦哈利街特许诊所的萨利嘉里女士说，在向她寻求戒瘾治疗的病人中，大约三分之二年龄在16岁到20岁之间，这比十年前“大幅上升”，但很多病人年龄更小。

In a recent survey of more than 1,500 teachers, around two-thirds said they were aware of pupils sharing sexual content, with as many as one in six of those involved of primary school age.

在最近针对1500多名教师的调查中，大约有三分之二表示他们知道有学生分享与性有关的内容，其中有六分之一是小学生。

More than 2,000 children have been reported to police for crimes linked to indecent images in the past three years.

在过去三年间，超过2000名孩子因与下流图片有关的犯罪行为被报告给警方。

“So many of my clients are 13 and 14 year-old-girls who are involved in sexting, and describe sexting as ‘completely normal’,” said Ms Saligari.

萨利嘉里女士说：“我的病人中很多是13岁到14岁的女孩，她们参与发送色情短信，并且认为这‘完全正常’”。

Many young girls in particular believe that sending a picture of themselves naked to someone on their mobile phone is “normal”, and that it only becomes “wrong” when a parent or adult finds out, she added.

她补充说，尤其是很多年轻女孩认为用手机给别人发送一张自己的裸照“很正常”，只有被父母或者成年人发现时才会成为“错误”。

Ofcom figures suggest more than four in ten parents of 12-15 year-olds find it hard to control their children’s screen time.

英国通信管理局的数据显示，12岁到15岁孩子的父母中，超过四成发现控制孩子的屏幕时间很困难。

Even three and four year olds consume an average of six and half hours of internet time per week, according to the broadcasting regulators.

据该机构的数据，甚至连三四岁的幼儿每周上网时间平均都在6.5小时。