Frances: Children get bullied at home by smartphone
SMARTPHONES lead to children being bullied in their own homes, former tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald has said.
Speaking about parents’ concerns over the dangers posed by the devices, the TD and former social worker said we need greater awareness of these issues.
She told her local Echo newspaper: ‘Smart devices and new technologies open up many positive opportunities for our students.
‘However, in recent years, parents have understandable concerns about the safety of young people online and schools are working hard to best manage students’ access to social media and the internet during school hours,’ she said.
‘If we take the example of bullying before social media, bullying ended at the school gates. One of the unfortunate aspects of the digital age is that bullying can now follow the student home via their phones and social media accounts.’
Ms Fitzgerald said she is ‘hopeful that greater awareness of online safety along with a unified approach on smartphones and other devices could be helpful to our students whether they are at home or in school’.
Despite these concerns, the Dublin mid-west Fine Gael TD said she supports Richard Bruton’s stance on smartphones in schools.
Instead of banning the devices, the Education Minister is asking every school to discuss with teachers, pupils and parents how internetenabled devices should be regulated in schools.
Each school will then have to publish a parent-and-student charter that would provide a guide for schools. Each school will have the final say on what policy they adopt. Mr Bruton has been criticised by school principals and parents for failing to issue a clear directive on the contentious issue to schools.
Last week Fianna Fáil said it wanted Mr Bruton to issue a circular to all schools which would ban smartphones up until Junior Certificate level. The party’s education spokesman Thomas Byrne has said the Government’s announcement on the matter was ‘wishy-washy’ and said the issue ‘needs leadership from the top’.
The Irish Daily Mail’s ‘Protect Our Kids Online’ campaign has attracted more than 2,000 signatures on a petition calling for a minimum age for smartphone ownership.
FRANCES Fitzgerald should be congratulated for openly stating the obvious. Speaking to her local newspaper, she observed that, with the use of smartphones, children can now be bullied inside their own homes. At any time of the day or night, young people can be tormented in the place where they should feel safest.
That a politician of Mrs Fitzgerald’s stature should state this so boldly is refreshing. Unlike many of her colleagues, she seems to recognise how negatively such devices are impacting the lives of so many children. Having reached this sound conclusion, it is, thus, disappointing she felt unable to call for a ban on smartphones in Irish schools, or, as this paper advocates, a minimum age for smartphone ownership.
Either children are at risk from such devices, or they are not. If, as Mrs Fitzgerald appears to believe, they are at risk, then what business has any child with a smartphone, inside or outside school?
In time, let us hope the former tánaiste sees the sense in going the extra mile.