Children to learn of perils of social media
Banning mobile phones in schools is not enough. Tech giants must also change their ways
CHILDREN as young as four are to be taught about the perils of social media, the Education Secretary has announced.
This week the Government will launch a consultation on draft guidance that ministers will provide to schools on how to teach “age appropriate” sex and relationship education classes.
All children aged four to 11 should be taught a set of rules and principles to protect themselves online, the draft guidance will say, as well as how to spot risks and harmful content. Pupils at primary school should also be taught why computer games, online gaming and social media sites have age restrictions, it will add.
Writing in today’s Daily Telegraph, Damian Hinds says that the Government must play a role in helping to protect children from the darker sides of the internet. He writes: “One of the most important ways of protecting children is to educate them so they can learn to recognise potential dangers for themselves.”
He adds: “Today children have to learn to cope in two worlds: the virtual one and the real one, and this is giving old problems a dangerous new edge. Take bullying, for example. It’s always cruel, but at least most children used to be able to escape it once they got home. Cyber-bullying never stops.”
Ican clearly remember getting my first mobile phone. It was back in the Nineties, I was in my twenties, and the phone was a Sony “Mars Bar”. It was so called because it was supposed to be a similar size; it wasn’t even close. It made calls and that was it. I thought it was the absolute business. The biggest danger it posed would have been dropping it on my foot.
Children today have never known a time when a phone couldn’t navigate you through life. It is our sense of direction, our bank, our shopping centre, our library and our music collection. Parents let their children have mobile phones because it means they can be in constant contact with them, checking that they are happy and safe. It’s one of the countless benefits of 21st-century technology. But, like all things, there are downsides.
Today children have to learn to cope in two worlds, the virtual one and the real one. And this is giving old problems a dangerous new edge. Take bullying: it’s always cruel, but at least most children used to be able to escape it once they got home. Cyber bullying never stops, even after the school bell rings. Sadly, research suggests that one in four young people have suffered it.
Body image and self-confidence are even more precarious in the age of the selfie. There is relentless pressure to compare and share among peer groups. Young people are vulnerable to predators in chat rooms, and to addiction and graphic violence in video games. While these issues aren’t new, social media and mobile tech exacerbate them. It makes them relentless and unavoidable in your pocket or handbag. It’s the flip side of being able to connect with anyone, anywhere, at any time – there is no escape. None of this is conducive to a child’s happiness and well-being.
In recent weeks, there have been calls for blanket bans on phones in schools to deal with these issues. I support any head teacher who imposes one. But I firmly believe that it is for the head teacher – the person who knows the pupils, the parents and the school – to make that decision, rather than a politician telling them to do so. Our research shows 95 per cent of teachers surveyed said their schools impose a restriction on mobile phone use during the school day. We have also given teachers the powers to confiscate phones and to investigate cyber bullying in and out of school.
But a phone ban can only address the symptoms, not the cause of the problem. It is the social media and game companies that have a moral responsibility to their users, especially the younger ones. It is not an excuse to say a site or game is only meant for adults. These giants must act: they should be taking down bullying content from their sites far more quickly. They should be promoting diversity of body image among their millions of users. Gaming companies should do more to shield young users from inappropriate content or from being contacted by strangers.
Of course, schools must also still play a role in protecting children – and government has a responsibility to help them. In fact, one of the most important ways of protecting children is to educate them so they can learn to recognise potential. That’s why this week I am launching a consultation on the draft guidance we will be providing to schools to teach relationships education in primary and relationships and sex education in secondary. We will make this compulsory in all schools, so that young people are better informed about healthy relationships. This covers friends, family, partners and casual acquaintances, including those they make online, teaching them how to recognise and manage risks.
Many of today’s problems didn’t exist when we last gave schools guidance on how to teach relationships and sex education 18 years ago. It’s high time we updated these subjects, which are so important in helping young people become happy, well-rounded and better able to deal with the challenges of the modern world. As a society, we can’t switch off the internet and nor would we want to. But we must make sure that everyone, especially children, can navigate the virtual world, as well as knowing when it’s time to step away and make the most of the real one.