Time to ban mobiles in schools?
To The Independent
I can’t ever remember agreeing with Nick Gibb, the schools minister, about anything educational, but on the crucial issue of mobile phones in schools, I find myself in total agreement.
There exists reputable and ever-growing research evidence on the harm done to children by these technologies – physiologically, psychologically and socially – and it’s simply delusory that they represent unproblematic human “progress”. The addictive and distracting nature of “technologies of instantaneity”, and the commercial vested interests pushing them, make for a truly toxic mix, against which children simply do not possess the developmental maturity to protect themselves and make healthy, informed decisions about them. And that many adults seem also to fall into this latter category, and to be in complete denial about the “shadow” side of “social media” technologies’ antisocial tendencies, merely exacerbates the grave problem modern culture is facing.
When we see nurseries invaded by ipads, and the scarcely believable ipotty for babies, surely we have to realise that something is very seriously wrong. As the Jesuits rightly had it, start (hook) them young, and you have them for life. Dr Richard House, chartered psychologist and childhood campaigner
To The Times
Schools can only do so much in the battle to limit the amount of time that young people spend on mobile phones. It is parents, not schools, who usually are responsible for purchasing mobile phones; and although one can accept that children may need to carry a phone for their personal safety, there is no need for this to be a smartphone that facilitates full, unfiltered web and social media access. In contrast, where schools allow or supply tablet devices or laptops for educational purposes, responsible institutions usually provide full web-filtering and a device management system that allows the teacher to monitor and take control of the pupil’s tablet. Mark S. Steed, director, Jumeirah English Speaking School, Dubai