PORT Seton 296. Even the thought evokes waves of anxiety.

As a youngster, I was always afraid to answer the phone. The piercing ring, the weight of the ‘receiver’, the fear of who might be on the line.

If my sister and I, aged seven and eight, missed our bus on our journey home from school in Edinburgh, we knew to find the nearest telephone box and ask the operator to ‘transfer the call’. And my father would send someone to collect us: “Look for two schoolgirls, stranded at the last bus stop in Joppa.”

What a different world our young ones are growing up in today. Many are suffering from a new irrational condition, ‘nomophobia’ (no mobile phone phobia) – a syndrome associated with the digital age, a real feeling of anxiety when a person doesn’t have connection or access to their mobile phone.

I’m not making this up. It is acknowledged that young people’s mental health is challenged by addictions to mobile phone use.

Research by Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has found that 90 per cent of 12-year-old children own their own mobile phone.

Evidence shows that even having a mobile phone in your bag or pocket can impact your brain to be drawn to check it. And that’s not just for children. We are all hooked. This is impacting badly on children’s ability to learn, their concentration levels and natural curiosity.

They are at risk of being exposed to misinformation: confusing at best, dangerous and inappropriate at worst.

As well as a distraction to learning, personal mobile phones can be a serious risk to safety, personal awareness and privacy.

Our children are being traced, manipulated and monetised in a way that is sinister and menacing. Governments across the world are acting, but not urgently enough.

The Scottish Government has issued guidance to schools to allow a ban on phone use – a good start, but a lot more needs to be done, and urgently, to keep our children safe.