Fitness trackers are damaging youngsters’ mental health, leading headmaster warns

Fitness trackers are damaging youngsters’ mental health and parents should stop encouraging their children to wear them, a leading preparatory school headmaster has warned.

William Dunlop, head of Clayesmore Preparatory School in Dorset, said that “well-meaning” mothers and fathers are increasingly buying their children activity trackers as gifts.  

The trackers - which can measure anything from the number of steps you have taken that day to your heart rate - are viewed by many parents as a good way to encourage their children to exercise.

But parents are buying the gadgets without necessarily considering the negative side-effects, Mr Dunlop said, such as contributing towards anxiety or other mental health issues.  

“You have physical as well as mental consequences,” he said. “I see the early stages of that. It is not long before the competitive instinctive could become quite unhealthy”.

Writing in Attain, the Independent Prep School Association’s magazine, he said: “Wearable activity trackers have become steadily more mainstream over the last few years, so much so that an increasing number of children are wearing them.

“Used well, the data they provide can be invaluable in developing a healthy lifestyle and in promoting fitness. The trouble is that the data is very rarely used well, in fact the way it is presented can be positively harmful.”

Mr Dunlop said that impressionable children are “particularly susceptible to obsessive behaviour in pursuit of arbitrary goals”. He said “responsible, well-meaning parents” may think they are helping their children, by responding to the “perceived problem” of childhood inactivity.

In fact, Mr Dunlop says that such items are “entirely superfluous” as in most cases, their children are already very active. He said that the fitness trackers can lead to “unforeseen risks of obsessive behaviour and overwork” as well as the issue of online safety, since so much data is generated about a child's health. 

If parents really want their children to develop active lifestyle, they should encourage them to take part in sociable sporting activities, Mr Dunlop advised.

“If you are really going to establish healthy habits, trying to compete with yourself is not the best way,” he said.

“The best way is for them to really enjoy it. By all means use these things but make sure they enjoy it – get them involved in sports clubs.”

Fitbit recently launched a new wristband which was designed for children over the age of eight, which can send reminders to them to get up and active, set family step challenges and monitor sleep patterns.

Fitbit devices are popular among adults, with vibrating notifications to remind people to stretch their legs. But the Fitbit Ace is the company's first fitness product aimed specifically at children.