A video of Prince William giving sweet praise to Kate Middleton and issues warning

Prince William has urged people to spend less time on their phones, as he told a youngster who confessed to scrolling: “The grown ups are guilty of it too.”

The Prince, who was visiting the opening of a new youth club in White City, London, said “we have got to be better at it”, with people across the generations spending “ages on our phones”. During the visit to WEST Youth Zone, he turned his hand to a range of non-screen-based activities, shooting a basketball hoop on his fifth attempt and icing a biscuit. “My wife is the arty one,” he said while biscuit-making.

His wife the Princess of Wales remained at home as she recovers from an abdominal operation. Sources said the engagement, which came days after a row about a digitally-enhanced photograph of the Wales family, was always intended to be solo. The Prince returned to the topic of mobile phone use twice during the engagement, in which he found himself in the middle of a crowd of excited children and teenagers shaking hands and taking a selfie.

Onlookers described him as being in full dad mode as he spent more than an hour with youngsters, darting off to see a new room or asking his team if he had enough time to try his hand at another sport. The Prince was visiting WEST, a youth club named by young people and standing for ‘Where Everyone Sticks Together’. In the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, it caters for eight to 19-year-olds, and will soon be open seven days a week with dedicated youth workers on site to support them in developing the “skills and confidence they need to achieve their dreams”.

Facilities include a sports hall, fitness suite, indoor climbing wall, teaching kitchen, performing arts studio and café which will serve hot nutritious meals costing no more than £1. Arriving at the site, at White City, Prince William was greeted by a line-up of civic dignitaries and congratulated them on their achievement in helping the young club to get off the ground.

“What you’ve done here is incredible,” he said. “I really like the concept, it ticks all the boxes – it’s fun, safe, educational… It’s great. Peppering them with questions about what the land was before the building, how they reach the young people to get them in, and what they would be doing otherwise, he said: “It’s a massive achievement.” The Prince made his way slowly through the building, shaking hands with any passing child or volunteer and asking their names and a little bit about them.

His first stop was around an art table, where a team of young people who had helped design WEST told him about their vision. “It’s such a great space isn’t it,” he told them. “What do you like most about it?” As the conversation turned to what they would be doing if they were not at the facility, one young woman told him she would otherwise be “scrolling” her phone. “How much time do you all spent on your phones a day,” he asked, looking around to joke: “Everyone in this room has got something to be honest about here!” Hearing that it could be up to 15 hours, William said: “I bet you feel better coming here, not on your phone.”

He went on to praise the organisation, which is open seven days a week, for giving a space to “get your homework done, then your evenings are a bit quieter”. “Where can you go and be kids and do your stuff outside school?” he asked. After congratulating the team, he made an impromptu visit to a state-of-the-art gym where he watched school children practising their dead hangs and chin ups.