Texting late at night is worse for children than watching television as it disrupts children's sleep and memory cycle and hinders learning, a leading education professor claims.
Parents should also be more concerned about children using technology at night than cyberbullying, Dr Paul Howard-Jones warns. Children should be limited to nighttime texting as staring at a small bright screen under the duvet can interfere with the hormon melatonin secretion, which regulates our sleep cycle, Jones told the BBC.
The full report into the issue will be aired at the Bristol Festival of Education on Monday.
Jones will also produce evidence to suggest teenagers who text during nighttime are four times more likely to experience daytime drowsiness. The Bristol University professor, who specialises in education and neuroscience, is urging adults to apply their parenting skills to the online and technology worlds.
"Most parents would discourage their children from having a midnight chat to friends on the doorstep, but having access to a mobile phone under the duvet can also be a bad idea," he is expected to say.