Time to ban mobile phones from primary schools?

Iam a big fan of social media and you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook for loads of well-being and mental health tips. But as I sit here on a few days’ break, I have to regularly chase my children off tablets and phones, despite having some agreed contracts in place! I often talk about perseverance, but if all our kids could develop their pestering power into perseverance for music, maths and languages then they would truly thrive.

I have been talking recently to primary schools about staying safe on social media and cyberbullying. I’ve found that a lot of parents feel overwhelmed by the subject. However, I was impressed in schools in Clare and Kerry where parents and schools have joined forces to set a healthy boundary on the students’ use of smartphones, tablets and social media both inside and outside school hours. Necessity created the need for managing student’s social media use as there had been incidents on messaging groups used by the sixth class students on Snapchat and Instagram. The activity was affecting friendships and leading to arguments. Up and down the country, teachers will describe how social media is having negative impacts on their students’ school life; class dynamics and emotions.

Cyberbullying

Taking place over digital devices like mobile phones, computers, and tablets, cyberbullying can occur through SMS, text, apps and in social media forums, or online gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting or sharing negative, harmful, false or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else, causing embarrassment or humiliation. Cyberbullying can harm the online reputations of everyone involved – not just the person being bullied, but those doing the bullying or participating in it. Cyberbullying has some unique aspects:

 Persistent – digital devices offer an ability to immediately and continuously communicate 24 hours a day, so it can be difficult for children experiencing cyberbullying to find relief.

 Permanent – most information communicated electronically is permanent and public, if not reported and removed.

 Hard to notice – because teachers and parents may not overhear or see cyberbullying taking place, it is harder to recognise.

Digital awareness for parents

The digital world is constantly evolving, with new social media platforms, apps and devices appearing that children and teens often are the first to use them. Parents need to wise up on social media.

Five ways for parents to get digitally wise

1 Monitor your child’s social media sites, apps and browsing history, if you have concerns that cyberbullying may be occurring.

2 Review or re-set your child’s phone location and privacy settings.

3 Follow: Ask a trusted adult to follow or friend your child/teen on social media sites. 4 Know your child’s usernames and passwords for email and social media.

5 Establish ground rules about appropriate digital behaviour, content and apps.

Setting boundaries

* Check in frequently with your children about their digital experiences to address any potential risk of cyberbullying and harm. Be clear that your intention is to look out for their well-being, and that you want open communication. Listen to their concerns and express your own view; after all, you are more than likely paying the bill.

* To minimise the risk of cyberbullying or harm from digital behavior, parents can set clear expectations about online and texting behaviour; be clear about what content can be viewed or shared; identify which apps are appropriate for your child’s use and which are not; establish rules about the amount of time that a child can spend online or on their devices. The Golden Rule is: Never text or post – words, pictures, videos, links, emails, blogs, comments and tweets – that you’re not happy for the whole world to view and that you are comfortable to say out loud to the face of the other person.

No phones in primary schools

My view is that the government needs to support parents by having a blanket ban on phones in all primary schools in Ireland. When children go to first year in secondary school then that’s a good enough time to get a smart device. Until then, children can use their parents devices. It’s time to give parents a true break. Banning phones at primary would be a real positive statement of support to parents, and children would know the score very quickly. Of course, as they start secondary school, you can be pretty certain what will be top of their list of school supplies!