‘Parents, turn your phones off at night’
Government adviser urges adults to set an example for children by leaving mobiles downstairs when they sleep
PARENTS should leave their phones on the kitchen table at night to set an example to their children, a government adviser has said.
Ian Bauckham, who guides ministers on how RSE – relationship and sex education – should be taught in schools, urged parents to be stricter with their children when it comes to using technology.
In RSE lessons, which become compulsory from September 2020, children as young as four will be told of the perils of social media and how to spot harmful content online. Mr Bauckham said that for children to learn, parents needed to lead by example.
He said parents must start “modelling good behaviour” at home, adding that they should not be “checking [their] phone 12 times during a family meal”. They should “be involved” in their children’s use of technology from a young age by, for example, sitting beside them when they use social media.
“[Parents should] allow a period where phones and computers can be used, but strictly demarcate that in the family routine,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “Have times when it’s clearly not acceptable to use technology or your mobile phone,” he said.
“Make sure all computers are switched off at least two hours before bedtime. Don’t allow internet access in the bedroom, particularly not mobile phones, and all mobile phones – including mum’s and dad’s – get left on the kitchen table when you go to bed.”
Mr Bauckham, formerly the head of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that a positive knock-on effect of introducing RSE in schools would be if parents also learnt how to use technology responsibly.
“It is very good practice [for schools] to engage with parents, primarily to inform them about the content they are proposing in this area,” he said.
“But a very positive spin-off could be a greater level of parental awareness about what good behaviour looks like when modelled for young people in the home.” Over the past decade, social media had become “pervasive” in the lives of the young and adults alike, he said. “It leads to consequences we are probably only just beginning to understand.”
Teenagers today were more isolated, went out less and physically met friends less, he said. “That’s largely a consequence of social media,” he added.
“But psychologically, mentally, emotionally, I think they are probably more fragile than they have been for generations. That’s because of unregulated exposure to the internet: porn, social media, all the risky aspects.”
The Daily Telegraph’s Duty of Care campaign is calling on ministers to make it a duty of social media and gaming giants to protect children from addiction, bullying and grooming online.