Children at risk of ‘iPhone burnout’

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Symptoms of burnout can include sleep disorders, inability to concentrate and impaired social development from spending too much time making friends in cyberspace.

Ms Ramlakhan said: "I'm seeing more and more patients with disrupted sleep and the iPhone is tipping the balance. Children especially are losing out on sleep because they're doing homework on the internet.

"Our brains have not adapted to cope with the pace of new technology. Children and parents need to be educated about healthy ways of working with it. Otherwise you can spend hours locked in front of a computer."

A study of more than 1,000 parents found almost a fifth with children aged five to 11 regularly use social networking sites to keep in touch with offspring.

The research, commissioned by esure insurance, also found 39 per cent of parents admitted using a site such as Facebook to see what their children's friends were like.

And 29 per cent confessed that they had looked at a social networking site to find out more about their child's boyfriend or girlfriend.

Another study of 267 pupils aged 11 to 18, by Cranfield School of Management, found nearly two thirds of pupils felt addicted to the internet and more than half to their mobile phones.