“There is nothing wrong with kids being bored,” she said on Newsround, talking about the social media ban for under-16s. Dr Mann argues that boredom is essential for brain development mainly because when we are bored, we are searching for something to relieve the feeling. “We seem to be more bored than ever before,” says Dr Mann. “The dying art is the ability to cope with that boredom because parents are scared to let kids be bored. Dr Mann suggests giving children materials to solve their own boredom rather than solving it for them – which is a tactic I’ve taken.