Strict no phones rule at secondary school

Cars are fitted with trackers because insurance companies insist on it and they lower premiums. Cars are stolen all the time and no-one has ££££s for insurance or replacement.

Your second point doesn't add up. Rape and attacks on women are at an all time high - while smartphone usage is almost universal. So how exactly are phones helping? Where is the evidence that smartphones prevent rapes and assault? If anything they increase the prevalence and opportunties (stalking, upskirting, mugging, voyeurism). They might help provide evidence after the fact but given less than 1% of reported rapes make it to court, it's not really a significant factor.

@saraclara if the thought of somebody tracking you makes you shudder, maybe you're protecting that onto how your kids would feel?

I couldn't care less that DD and DH can see my whereabouts. They're my family, I don't need privacy from them as I go about my normal day. DH feels exactly the same. So as a result DD knows that tracking is a normal thing in our family and she doesn't see it as an invasion of privacy or whatever. It's just a thing that we can do. She finds it fun being able to track DH driving somewhere and he doesn't feel that his privacy has been terribly invaded because she can see he went to Tesco on his way home 😂

Our school has a very strict phone policy. However, most children have phones and they just turn them off or to silent when they're in school. It really is that easy.

@CurlewKate I am a functioning, confident adult. I still turn on location tracking on my phone so that if something bad happens my loved ones know my location. It doesn't stop me going out, functioning or taking risks. It protects me and has been useful when dodgy men have been pestering me on nights out walking home alone. To suggest sharing your location on a device with your parents (which the majority of kids already do with their phones) will somehow make you an anxious paranoid mess is what's ludicrous. It's responsible and sensible in todays society. Sad , yes. But true.

If this technology has been available when I was at secondary school, I really wouldn't have been bothered about my mother knowing where I was.

As per my previous example, our trackers allow my kids to see where I am if I've said I'm near their school at 3.30. We find it very useful.

I always wonder how schools manage with phones they confiscate. What about insurance?

@AuntieJune A tracker or a phone with tracking wouldn't stop an attack no, but it's function is to show the location - giving you a chance to interject or provide information to the police. Its not protection in itself, it's a mitigation. Kids know their phones track them already.

@Comedycook
"In our area a few weeks ago, some weirdo tried to get a school pupil to get into their van"

How would a tracker have helped here?

My dS is year 8, he plays sport for the school and occassionally there are away matches that we don't hear about until the day. He doesn't always take his phone to school but it's helpful to know if he messages saying there's a match at x school and I'll be home at approx y. The other day he didn't take his phone, and wasn't in at 6.15 when I got home from work which was slightly disconcerting (school is 15 min walk) but I guessed he was at a match.

@Welcometothehumanrace "Why, if we would go to lengths to protect inanimate objects such as a car, would we not use the same technology to keep our young safe?"

Because a car cannot disconnect its tracker. A car will not think it's safe because it has a tracker. A car does not need to learn how to negotiate the world and become a confident, functioning adult car. A car has no need/entitlement to privacy. A car is not able to sent a text/make a call. A car does not need to learn how to make good choices. A car is an absurd metaphor!

I've literally given you 2 specific examples of when it was beneficial to be able to track DD. Just because you think she should have been able to have behaved in a different way, that's irrelevant because she couldn't/didn't, and tracking was useful in those scenarios.

I'm not stalking you @CurlewKate , honest! But this is yet another thread where I find myself in full agreement with you.

I rely on my phone for all sorts of things now, like everyone else. But I use it when I choose to, and my young adult kids contact me when they choose to. The thought of someone tracking my whereabouts makes me shudder, and there's no way I'd have inflicted that on my kids when they were teens.

This reminds me of the thread about tracking partners. Apparently it's vital so that you can have a cup of tea/dinner ready when your partner gets home from work 🙄

Everyone saying how did we cope as kids without phones ... well, sometimes not very well.

And we all use ours, so why not them?

One example of them being convenient, is sometimes I happen to be driving by their school at end of day time, so can let them know I'm available to give them a lift. This means they can be home in 10 minutes as opposed to the hour it takes on public transport. Which they obviously manage regularly, but on the occasion my work takes me near their school at the right time, I can let them know. Saves them a long walk with heavy bags, especially on days they are carrying PE kit or musical instruments. That's not mollycoddling, it's a nice break from the monotony of public transport for them, and they are really grateful. As an adult, I'd appreciate the help. I don't feel we need to toughen them up further, or make life harder just to make them independent.

Because whilst my DC are school age, I'm perfectly entitled to know their whereabouts. Like I said, I don't sit there staring at it all day obsessively . But if there was an occasion where they were running late or hadn't contacted me, I'd like to be able to check where they are. Its another layer of safety and doesn't infringe on them...they literally don't care. In our area a few weeks ago, some weirdo tried to get a school pupil to get into their van.

People aren't cars.

Reported crimes aren't equal to crimes occuring. Many assaults and rapes were previously not reported because there was no hope of justice.

Not to be unpleasant, but a phone won't save a child from a targeted gang attack. They're not going to stop so you can ring your mum or the police, are they?

@Can't believe how many posters want to return to the 1980s. I bet if you were meeting a friend for dinner, you'd take your phone just in case of any hold ups or changes of plan."

Of course I would. But either the friend or I would choose to get in touch. I wouldn't need to track her. Nobody has been able to explain the benefits of tracking. I am perfectly convinced of the benefits of having a phone!

Cars are fitted with trackers because we now have the technology to fight crime and protect our property.

Why, if we would go to lengths to protect inanimate objects such as a car, would we not use the same technology to keep our young safe? Perhaps ignorance is bliss. Technology and its advances, both good and bad, exist - whether you agree with them or not. There are dangers posed to young people in the modern age which are more prevalent than before social media and the internet. Grooming, bullying, drug use, targeted attacks - all far more common since social media and instant connectivity has been used for spurious means.

With rape and attacks on women at an all time high (amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/apr/28/sex-crimes-record-high-england-wales-prosecution-levels) - is it really so hard to imagine a scenario whereby a tracker might help a 15 year old being attacked? If my daughter text me whilst walking home in the dark from school (dark here at 3pm in winter), saying she thought she was being followed by a gang and felt at risk, I would want to know where she is and follow that trail if she was suddenly unable to communicate. Anecdotal "I was fine 20 years ago" posts are pointless, lots of people will never encounter trouble, but many do & why wouldn't you want to help your child if they become a victim; from getting lost to a targeted gang attack, surely the good outweighs the bad. Same logic as a rape alarm (some of which have trackers) - would you say that incites anxiety or is a sensible approach to protect yourself?

My DD is 12 and has minor sen. I pick her up from school but one day the time changed for various reasons ....she panicked, luckily she had her phone so it was easily sorted. There were lots of other potential solutions but she is only young and went into a real panic.

Both my DC are tracked and absolutely fine with it. I don't stare at my phone the whole time they're out but if my ds is running late or needs picking up it's much easier to quickly look to see where he is.

Can't believe how many posters want to return to the 1980s. I bet if you were meeting a friend for dinner, you'd take your phone just in case of any hold ups or changes of plan.

Well, that would have been nice, but she was only 11 at the time and she's autistic. Her instinct was to phone her mum rather than use maps and the technology enabled me to help.
In the second example telling me she was in Costa wouldn't have been much use, we all needed to go out and we were able to pick her up walking along the street because we knew exactly where she was.

She likes to have her independence and we like her to have it - but she is only young still with SEN, so tracking is great for us and probably allows her a level of independence she couldn't have otherwise.

We just let the child that wants to stay for a club/club is cancelled/has lost their bus pass/needs money on their lunch account use the landline to call a parent and a message is sent automatically through the messaging system if they are issued with detention?

Agreed. It's far from hilarious. It's damaging on a personal level, and on a societal level. The fact that people are so happy to give up their own privacy as well as that of their offspring, is really quite disturbing.

How has the world changed? There have always been dangers out there. The place kids are most at risk is at home with their own families, statistically.

It's not just risk of crime etc. There used to be plentiful public phone boxes where the child could phone home if delayed, change of plans, etc. They've all gone now! When I was at school in the 80's we actually had a pay phone in the sixth form centre - freely available for sixth formers use but also to all pupils upon asking permission. There were also 3 public pay phones on street corners right outside the school gates which often had queues of pupils waiting to use them. All gone.

@nancy2022 "To the posters that think it's hilarious to track an 11 and 13 year old, how old are you and your kids?"

I don't think tracking is hilarious. I think it's damaging, intrusive and unnecessary. My children are young adults, but were among the first of their peer group to have phones/smartphones.