I'm amazed by how much time some students spend on their mobiles

Tony Sherborne Pupil Researcher Initiative

Of the 941 surveyed, 77% use their phone for less than 15 minutes a day, 5.4% for more than an hour and 4.6% for more than 45 minutes, while 11% believe they have been affected by radiation from the phone.

Text messages are sent and received by 96% of the children surveyed - with 16% sending 10 or more a day.

The research was conducted by the Pupil Researcher Initiative (PRI), a curriculum development project from two of the UK's Research Councils.

PRI's Tony Sherborne, who devised the survey, said: "I'm amazed by how much time some students spend on their mobiles.

Dr Alan Preece, a medical physics researcher at Bristol Oncology Centre, said: "Until such time as the research assures us there are no health effects, short or long-term, then the more children themselves are informed, the better."