I FELT I WAS BATTLING ON MY OWN AGAINST MY CHILDREN OVER PHONES

MOTHER-of-two Erica Britnell took matters into her own hands on the issue of a smartphone ban at St Catherine’s National School – as she feared her son would be asking for one next year.

She felt that she, as a parent, should not be left to fight this battle alone.

After listening to RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy raise the success story of Blennerville National School in Co. Kerry on his radio show during a discussion on the dangers of social media, she decided to take action.

Mrs Britnell has two children aged 11 and nine who attend St Catherine’s National School in Dublin 8.

She told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘My eldest son is in fourth class and this is something that had been on my mind for a long time.

‘I always felt slightly helpless as I felt I was battling against my kids on my own.

‘I was listening to the Ryan Tubridy show one morning and he was talking about the school in Kerry which had implemented a smartphone ban.

‘They managed to do it so easily and it just seem so obvious to me; you get parents to agree collectively.

‘I always felt that the problem was that the kids would use peer

‘Parents should agree collectively’

pressure, and if other children had one, they would say: “Oh, can I have one too”,’ said Mrs Britnell.

‘A lot of the time, parents don’t want to give their kids a smartphone, but they feel they have to.

‘I felt personally that if we could get parents to agree collectively to not buy children smartphones, that would remove the peer pressure element away from it.

‘I thought it seemed like such a good idea and that’s when I approached the parents’ association to see would there be any interest in doing something like what they had done in the school in Kerry.’

Her 11-year-old son will be going into fifth class in September, but his mum hopes by then, all parents will have agreed to not purchase smartphones for their children and those who already have will agree to a ban or restriction similar to Blennerville National School.

She said she’s already received the support of parents, some of whom caved to the pressure to give their older children phones and now don’t want to have to do the same with their younger siblings.

She said: ‘The fact that the school in Kerry has done it so well, in many ways [paves] the way for other schools to follow suit.

‘I have spoken to a handful of parents so far and they are all on the same page as me, they all felt powerless alone.

‘A number of parents who have older children in the school have told me that they regretted giving their children smartphones and now don’t want to give their younger children one.

‘Having had the experience with their older children, they would welcome new rules.

‘We just need the majority of parents to agree. My hope is that, in September, it will be a smartphone-free school and unsupervised access. Smartphones have no place in primary schools and certainly no place in a child’s bedroom.

‘The principal of St Catherine’s, Karen Jordon, spoke with Terry O’Sullivan [Blennerville principal] to seek advice regarding moving forward with our own plan to tackle issues surrounding smartphones,’ she said.

‘We hope to follow along the same lines as Mr O’Sullivan’s school.

‘We hope to reach a collective agreement with parents and the school. The key thing is that children don’t own a smartphone.

‘If they want to use the internet then this would be allowed in a controlled environment where parents know what their children are viewing. My children do, from time to time, use my smartphone, but it’s not theirs and I know what they are accessing.

‘It’s the social media apps associated with smartphones that are a big issue and one which I think nine and ten-year-olds do not need,’ she said.

‘They don’t need the fakeness or the potential. It’s not about banning the internet for our children, it’s about children not owning smartphones.

‘I wanted to nip it in the bud’

‘I think for me, it seems like a better approach. If children need a phone, then an ordinary button phone is allowed.

‘My son is in fourth class at the moment and I was really keen to have something introduced at St Catherine’s before he starts asking for one. ‘I was hoping to nip it in the bud. ‘If we could introduce this for September, it would be great because then it would become part of the school rules and then we are not the villains in all of this.’