Swiped - The school that banned mobile phones

A school local to me has a phone ban.

The majority of the pupils are absolutely glued to one when walking to school.

It’s parenting (and lack of education). Laziness.

I see children glued screens in pushchairs these days. My eldest is in secondary so not that long ago was I pushing my kids around and they never ever ever did it with a screen in their face.

we went to restaurants with no issue and they played with toys.

we now heavily restrict phone use. They have their phone for travel but it’s given to me at home and they ask permission to use it. They don’t have it in their rooms. They are only year 7 and it’s not necessary. Plenty of time to be wasted on phones as an adult, but no way am I allowing it as a child.

a lot of kids I’m hearing about on screens until the early hours, why are parents allowing it? And social media before the age stipulated? My children don’t have social media and will not be allowed to waste their lives on TikTok and Snapchat. Parents have stopped being parents. Just say no!

Education education education.

i work in the field so my kids have always known the risks. They know what each app can do, how people can find you, not to give identifying clues, and how to deal with unwanted contact.

fwiw when I was a kid for me it was books. I always had a book, never went anywhere without one. If I didn’t have one I’d read papers, magazines, toilet roll packets, anything I could find. No consideration for whether it was age appropriate- I was reading full on novels and biographies in primary school. I used to get very similar comments- I should put the book down and engage with people, I was anti social, I’d never have any friends, etc etc.

I live in Colchester and today saw one of the families that were in the show. The boy had his phone in his hand the whole time and was looking at it constantly so not sure he learnt or achieved much by taking part!

I have 2 at secondary school, with a third starting in September
They have so many things in their phones that they need to be able to function every day. Starting with bus pass, library card, lunch card, gym card and debit card, all on their phones.

The horse has bolted, there is no going back.

Edit: Forgot about homework apps and school email.

Our son is nine and he’s the only one in his friendship group that doesn’t have free access to a smart phone, he does have my old one, but he can only access a small number of games and has a 30 minute daily limit. He has no access to the web, things like tiktok etc or messaging (beyond family link). One of his friends can’t come to sleepovers at our house as we have a strict no phones in bedroom rule and said child can’t sleep without his phone, thankfully he no longer attends many play dates or sleepovers my son attends as he has already shown him innapropriate things on both tiktok and instagram, its also clear he has no restrictions on his web browser either as he showed an even younger child porn at a birthday party.

I always have mine with me (type one diabetic, so I need it stay alive essentially), but I don’t use it during meal times, when I’m with the kids, in my own bedroom etc. To be honest if it wasn’t for my diabetes and maps I wouldn’t actually need a smart phone, an old style brick phone would be fine.

I started watching with my 13yo .. that's a pity that it may not be suitable as it gets into it as he was very engaged and interested in it. He'll be getting a phone in the New Year (in Ireland they start secondary a bit later so have been able to hold out without mich effort up to this). We are devising rules together in advance. He wants Spotify, his sports app and what's app. He won't have a browser or TT/IG/FB. He wont have it overnight or when doing schoolwork. I'm happy with that but we are yet to negotiate the daily time limit.

@Pottedpalm oh yes!! I don't mind kids watching screens on long journeys but if they can't go round a supermarket or a few stops on the local bus without having something to watch it's really awful. And don't get me started on watching them at the dinner table in restaurants. We're raising a generation who literally don't know what it means to be bored or have to entertain themselves and make conversation. I think it's already telling how many of younger staff at work spend all day with their earpods in.

It’s stuff like this that I find appalling

CGM?
I assume that they would have to treat it aa a medical device, my son was diagnosed with Diabetes in year 11 he had a Dexcom fitted a week before his exams and was allowed ti have his phone in the exam room on the table in front of him.

I've downloaded family link my end, but not on hers yet.

Is it as simple as setting her up a google account and then going from there?

I've just got my year 6 DD one for Christmas too.

I've downloaded family link, disabled the browser, uninstalled YouTube, set up age restrictions etc.

I cannot believe the parents on this documentary seemingly just handed their kids fully functioning smartphones.

I don't know if I'd recommend watching it with a child @aperolspritzbasicbitch both episodes interview parents of children who did as a result of watching things on social media (black out challenge type stuff). I'd watch it yourself first and see what you think. It could be a good reason to watch it with a child to demonstrate that the dangers of such things are real, but only you know if that's suitable content for your child.

I've not watched yet, and will but was just wondering if before I do someone could tell me if it's suitable to watch with a child?

My year 6 has got one for Xmas, so they are able to start walking home from school alone in preparation for year 7.
Although there will be a blanket no on SM for quite a few years yet, I'm sure we'll have a few teething problems with setting boundaries for use etc when we first give it - so if they can watch something to open their eyes further to the potential downfalls then I'm all for waiting and watching it with them

I've just started watching it. Was anyone else shocked and how dim Matt and Emma sounded when they realised neither of them had put age restrictions on their kids phones?? Wtf!

Also having a smartphone and having social media and not one and the same. My DDs phone doesn't even have a functioning browser nevermind social media apps!

Mine use thejr phones to control the medical tech they are attached to. To work they have to be on and near the user at all times ie not handed in or in a locked locker somewhere. Just saying, for those who declare they can see no reason that a young child would need a smartphone.

Not really no, the parent had previously been asked to leave a parent's evening due to shouting at staff, so it was confrontation I wasn't prepared to have.
(Also I love your username- big love to TP!)

I can't believe people can't understand why children who rarely socialise and don't get any exercise or fresh air, are suffering.

But no one seemed to accept that they were suffering in lockdown...... any attempt to say that it wasn't good for them got shouted down.

I agree with the pp who said that a number of DC need access to public transport information - like lots of London children mine had a long and fiddly commute - knowing that the northern line was up the creek when they left school meant that they'd get the train fro station A to Victoria rather than station b (in the opposite direction) to London Bridge. this could well save them 30 minutes which in an evening which was time pressured with music practice and homework was a massive difference.

Personally I feel that the argument that the reason so many children are anxious is due to smart phones is over simplistic. On the higher ed board there are a number of lecturers commenting on how anxious and unresilient students are - these are of course the covid cohort who were locked down at an important point in their development. They are also some of the first to go through the new Gove curriculum where everything is linked tightly to a mark scheme and where 4 out of 9 might be a pass but it doesn't feel like a great achievement. No wonder they are anxious.

My 15yo is at school today. I've had several notifications in the past hour that he's done various revision tasks on an app that he can only access on his phone (and iPad but that's at home). It feels like schools see the only way to appeal to the kids is by putting all these things online.

I think that smartphones should be banned until 14, simply no need for them, and if there were a ban then companies would have to provide alternatives for kids/ old people to buy tickets etc. Even the kids in swiped basically agreed. Obviously an exception if you need one for proper medical reasons (like monitoring blood sugar), but everything else should be dumb.

I’d also ban social media until 16 and make “proper” age authentication mandatory with a criminal offence for sites which just let kids watch porn/ abuse etc.

In years to come allowing 11 year olds (and younger) to walk about with porn, bullying, extremism and violence in their pockets will be viewed as tantamount to child abuse.

I would let kids use things like you tube, game etc at home on other devices though, where it’s not constant and is much more easily scrutinised by parents.

It was terrifying and I'm genuinely shocked at how naive the parents were and how dependent the kids were on them. ok, phones have a use even at their age but I suspect most of them still wouldn't know how to access a bus or train timetable if they needed it!