Cutting bullying by banning mobiles needs wide support
QUEENSLAND Anti-Bullying Task Force chair and journalist Madonna King said parents, students and teachers need to be on board for mobile phone banning to work well in schools.
Ms King was appointed by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as part of a 14-member task force to stop bullying in Queensland schools – the panel includes school principals, university representatives, union delegates and Aboriginal leaders.
On ABC Breakfast Radio yesterday the journalist and author put the positives and negatives of banning mobile phones, as Brisbane schools such as Hillbrook Anglican School have done this year.
“I think that it is an issue for two reasons, I know some schools who don’t have a ban and are now trying to implement it and they say the biggest hazard to doing that is parents,” she said.
“One of those parents stopped me in the street yesterday and he said to me ‘I don’t want a ban in my school because my daughter was bullied last year and my wife likes to ring her at lunchtime to make sure she’s okay’.
“I can see really good reasons for it, and really good reasons against it. What I can say for this to work is it has got to be supported by parents and schools and students.”
Ms King said while interviewing teenage girls for research for her book Being 14, she found girls often don’t speak up about bullying because their parents might confiscate their phones.
As for a solution on mobile phone banning, Ms King said the answer needs to be agreed on by everyone.
“It may not be the experts around the table ... but maybe there is an idea that someone has that is the thing that could really make a difference,” she said.