No phone for secondary school

Even I got a phone ready for high school back in 2001.... not a smart phone because they didn't exist then, but pretty much everyone had a mobile phone. And bullying was rife even then (I would know, I had the cheap not a Nokia uncool phone). We all made phone holders/stands in woodwork class!

All that's changed now is how much the phone can do, and I personally wouldn't be willing to put my kid in the firing line by sending them in with a basic non smart phone (assuming you can still buy them?)

Mine is y6 and has had a basic smartphone for a couple of years now, he touches it about once a fortnight and isn't allowed social media (except YT, he has a YT channel he shares his roblox creations on). He asked for Snapchat recently as one of his friends has it and was told no, and off he went with zero arguments.

I just upgraded my own, so he will get my old one (much better than his current one, but still not a flagship big brand) when he starts high school, as it's a lot faster with more memory so will work better for him should he need it for school things

You can stop your child having a phone in year 7/8, and that's probably a good thing. Any older that that and you will be turning them into social pariahs and 'that weird kid whose mum doesn't let them have a phone'. And that is more damaging than almost anything a mobile phone can do to them.

What sort of personality is your son? You can't create inner confidence, if it's not natural, if you aren't naturally self confident then no one can make that inherent. But you can work at it. If your ds had inner confidence, inherent contentness then nothing that ever happened on SM would bother him. Are you sure your focus isn't misguided. Yes there's a generational MH problem. That requires attention and work. But blaming mobile phones (imo only) is not the answer.

Btw OP, per your original post:
"I’m expecting dc to walk home with friends talking and socialising without the inclusion of a screen or mindlessly "
Be reassured : most children who do walk home from school still do this. I leave work and drive past 4 schools on my way home, kids do this. the other day I drove past ds2's school and it was nice to see.

Likewise took ds2 to Wimbledon theatre this week to see GCSE Macbeth and Jekyll & Hyde, (mostly boys for the later), with no decent WiFi in an old theatre, most boys just sat chatting, so be reassured all is fine.

Banning smartphones doesn’t keep teenage girls ‘healthy and safe’.

What does is making sure they are busy and have interests that they continue. There is so much lazy parenting through ‘banning’ and just assuming they will give up interests at 11 and not encouraging them otherwise.

What is risky for teenagers is them being bored, spending all their time anlone in their room and not having enough positive friends. Whether or not they have a smartphone.

@Workworkandmoreworknow

"I can also assure you that as a teacher, I have heard colleagues discuss the nuisance that is the type 1 tech when it bleeps and alarms in classrooms. It beggars belief, frankly but I can assure you that there are plenty of people out there suggesting that those who might require their phone for health monitoring purposes shouldn't be allowed to use them in school."

Well fuck me, that has made my heart sink. That has made me truely sad.

I woke up at 4am. Because my blood sugar was high. I've been diabetic my whole life. What an invasive and shitty medical condition it is.

But other than diabetes, let's ignore that, I hope OP's children are happy with a phone, any phone will do so they aren't excluded, and they don't resent them in later life.

I am a prolific phone user, use mine for everything and love it. My Dh and ds's not so much. Phone use doesn't affect my self esteem nor ds's because their self esteem is good to start with. If that is solid, nothing can affect you anyway.

My DD won’t be getting an smartphone until she’s 16. It’s not my job as a parent to do what she wants, it’s my job to keep her healthy and safe.

How do I changey user name

My DD is 9 and loads of her friends have phones. The other day her friend ran past us back into school because she had forgotten her phone 🤦‍♀️

My DD will point blank not be getting a smart phone until shes at least 14/15.

I have an old school mate on facebook who put online that a man had been asking her 11 year old to send him photos of herself on snapchat...... few days later the 11 year old had a Facebook account 🤦‍♀️

My DD thinks I'm well tight and she can carry on thinking that until shes a lot older I really dont care

And no one is suggesting that those kids would have to hand in their phone.

Sadly, that just isn't true. I wish it was.

Surely smokers just go outside (or somewhere else) for a break when they want a fag? So a closer analogy to that scenario would be prohibiting the use of smartphones during lessons but allowing them at breaktime and lunchtime. Whereas you actually want the opposite – they might occasionally be useful in lessons, but not for accessing social media at other times.

Anyway talk of a ban at societal level is pie in the sky – you can ban their purchase under a certain age, as with smoking, but you can't ban their ownership. Political parties who claim they will do this are just grandstanding in the face of a GE. And interestingly Labour have pledged to enable all DCs with T1 diabetes to use smartphone tech, and even talked of supplying those DCs with smartphones if they can't afford them for themselves.

And no one is suggesting that those kids would have to hand in their phone

There are plenty of people on here who have said this in the past. A recent thread, as I have already said, someone suggested that because she knew of no conditions that needed a mobile phone for monitoring, it clearly wasn't necessary; someone else suggested it wasn't necessary or type 1 diabetics wouldn't have managed in the past; someone else suggested that blood only needed checking before and after school; others just don't see why anyone should have an exemption. Disability discrimination aside, it is frustrating for those of us who understand the impact the tech has had on type 1 management and thus the long term improvements to quality of life, to continue to see this kind of weird prejudice. In particular, the improvements in the tech will ensure that less and less type 1s have longer term consequences such as kidney failure, heart disease, loss of feet and blindness - and noted of course, that those are all things which could impact on people's ability to be productive, tax paying members of society until they reach retirement.

I can also assure you that as a teacher, I have heard colleagues discuss the nuisance that is the type 1 tech when it bleeps and alarms in classrooms. It beggars belief, frankly but I can assure you that there are plenty of people out there suggesting that those who might require their phone for health monitoring purposes shouldn't be allowed to use them in school.

And no one is suggesting that those kids would have to hand in their phone.

Oh there's a lot more than one @ShelfShark – 32,000 school age DCs with T1 diabetes are increasingly using this tech. And you sound pretty sensible, but honestly you'd be surprised how many people, both on MN and IRL, who don't think it should be an exception.

But my point is, there are always going to be DCs with smartphones that need to be on in most school settings. None of the measures suggested – handing them in when you arrive at school, having them in your bag but turned off, giving them to the teacher at the front of the class etc, let alone a ban – would be an acceptable alternative in this scenario.

There’s always one. Obviously no one is going to ban the child with the life threatening illness from using a phone to keep themselves alive.

Yeah I'm sort of in the same camp as @ArseholeCatIsABlackAndWhiteCat

My 3 are beyond school age now, but when they were there a smartphone was an essential part of the tech they used to manage the chronic (potentially life-threatening) medical condition 2 of them had. Would I have agreed to a phone ban because other kids misused social media? Would I fuck.

And we're back to "ban" .

Wow you've really had your eyes and ears closed if you think their campaign isn't getting traction.

Sorry pressed send too soon.
But you can't demand legislation and support from others , regardless of how this affects them. Tbh, I think that's why it's not getting much traction. Some people are trying to force other parents into "this is the only right decision ".

@ICouldBeVioletSky the issue is that the rhetoric around this topic(and on this thread) tends to be ban smartphones for kids/under 16's.There is an expectation of parents who have allowed phones or plan to allow it, to change that.That's what I disagree with. By all means, find like minded people , support them , find options and alternatives.

You have misunderstood.

There are a sizeable number of parents that really don’t want to give their kids smart phones but feel they have to because virtually every child of secondary age has one.

The point of the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign is not to insist that all parents say no, but to empower those that aren’t happy about smartphones to resist.

If you can get a critical mass of even 20% of parents who refuse to buy their child a smartphone, because they feel it is wrong for them and their family, then suddenly their child won’t be the only one without a smartphone, because the choice is normalised.

In fact you seem to be in complete agreement with all this - like you, parents who have signed up to the movement feel very strongly that they don’t want to “make parenting decisions based on what's best or easier for someone else/their kid.”