AIBU- 7 year olds bringing smartphones into class

[madhenlady]

Recently, my DC's school seems to have a bit of a problem with children bringing phones/ipads into class.

The school's policy is that these items must be placed in the school office at the beginning of school, to be collected at hometime

However, some children seem to be sneaking theirs into class. DD's friend got into trouble yesterday, because she hid her phone in her sleeve, was playing games with it under the desk, and ended up taking pictures of other children in the class.

The phone was confiscated, and DD says her teacher was very angry, especially because of the pictures. However it's not the first time- the teachers have had to have numerous talks with the children about not bringing these items in. DD says it's because they are 'very expensive and might get broken'

I feel really annoyed at this, especially now this incident with the child taking photographs. we have to sign the form to allow the school to take photographs of the children, so why on earth do some parents think it's OK to send their small children in with smartphones?

Secondly, it's disruptive- it's disrupting the learning time of my children and others.

Thirdly, what are the implications for cyber bullying?

Quite frankly, I thought the issue of cyber bullying would be a long, long way in the future- secondary school age. But then, I didn't dream for a minute that children would be running around the playground with their phones, taking pictures of my child!

Maybe I'm a bit touchy, but my younger teenage cousin has been bullied horribly this year, over social media, and has started self harming as a result- she's been through a dreadful time, and it's opened my eyes to what a serious issue it is

I am utterly disgusted that due to the idiocy of some parents, this could be something that could soon affect my children, before they even hit their teens!

Also, I know that there are a few fostered/adopted children in the school- why should they potentially have their safety put at risk? Obviously I'm surmising, but the school is strict about pictures taken at events, as it is

These children are 6 and 7!!!! AIBU to think it is utterly ridiculous? I'm not sure what the school is meant to do about it, but surely they have to do something?

I don't think any of the children in the boys' classes have phones, smart / cheap / payg or otherwise. There's no need. They are either in school with teachers supervising, on the way home with parents (very few walk alone, even those that live fairly close - almost all walk with parents or other older family members), being picked up by the after school buses for various after school organised care schemes.

Why does a 7 year old need a phone at all? The boys have ipads to play on as and when they earn the time, but I can't see them needing a phone until they go to intermediate for years 7&8.

YADefinitelyNBU!

I can't see a valid reason why primary age children need phones at all, and if parents think they do then they should probably re think their transport arrangements.

If a child is getting the school bus home I am not sure this really warrants the need for a mobile, we managed through till 16 without mobiles at all at school but if it is really necessary then it should be left in the office and that's it.

I am surprised this isn't easier to manage at the school TBH, tell the child off, take the phone off them and then contact the parents. I don't think the disruption of a child playing games on their phone is any different to other things disruptive children do in class, if it wasn't that it would be something else.

At my DCs school the policy is that they are allowed phones from Y5 if they need them but they hand them in at the beginning of the day, there hasn't been any problems as far as I know. Younger than that they are in adult supervision so totally unecessary.

Actually, just thinking about it, our school has a form too that the parents need to fill in first to give permission for the DCs to take in a phone.

DH has just pointed out that some children in the school have Facebook too, so of course, combined with smart phones, that seems like another recipe for disaster

Best line I heard was from a friend of mine replying to her 6 yr old who keep asking for a mobile phone , "Who are you going to call, Dora the Explorer"?

Our school policy is that if a phone is needed it must be handed into the teacher every morning and will be given back at the end of the day. The teachers would be furious if anyone was using their phone during school day. It wouldn't keep happening as I am sure the school would punish the child (traffic light system) and contact the parents.

It's only really the year 6's here that walk home on their own and even then only a few do as most get driven. They are allowed to use their phones to text parents in the morning to say they have arrived etc, but that is all. Very strict on things like this thankfully.

In response to the questions, as I have said I am anti screens for children. My DCs don't have iPads, DSs etc. They do have a shared playstation and throughout the week they can earn screen time up to a maximum of an hour on saturday and an hour on Sunday. They are only allowed age appropriate games and nothing where they join up with friends via the internet. I am strict with internet access and I am strict with watching inappropriate films etc. They are 9 and 7 and are only allowed to watch Us and PGs. There is not a hope in hells chance they they would be allowed Facebook pages etc as some of their friends do.

But they do have a mobile phone and they take it to school. It is basic and doesn't even take photos but they have it because they come home on the school bus which is unsupervised apart from the driver and we live out in the sticks. If they miss the bus or if the bus can't make it into the village because of the snow or if I'm late and won't be at the bus stop then they are little and I need to be able to contact them.

If they had to hand it in to school each day then there is no way DS2 in particular would ever remember to collect it and they would be without any ability to contact me.

They are 7 and 9, there is no way anyone is stopping me sending them in with a phone and fortunately the school is realistic and allows the bus boys to have phones. My DSs go to a primary where they have different teachers and different classrooms for each different subject and so all of their things are carted around with them all day.

Clearly if they were using it in class they would get told off and that's right and to be expected. But TBH they wouldn't dare anyway.

So of course its not good if children play with phones in class but that's partly down to the teachers. And clearly not all children will have a valid reason for having a phone but there are some situations where it is both reasonable and necessary.

But surely if there was a problem (such as snow) the school would contact you themselves? Or the bus driver?

Atticus - are you in USA? In Britain 7 year old kids cannot even leave the school premises unless they are collected by an adult. Well none of the primary schools in know. Therefore they should not require a phone.

In our school pupils hand phones to teacher in the morning and get back at the end of the day. A few older (10, 11 year olds) have them. My DD (10) takes an old non-smart phone one day a week as she walks home alone after a club, she phones to let me know when she is leaving school so I know when to expect her. It's a 15 min walk and we both feel safer knowing she can phone me if there is a problem. A straight no phone policy would not be good for us.

Atticus - are you in USA? In Britain 7 year old kids cannot even leave the school premises unless they are collected by an adult. Well none of the primary schools in know. Therefore they should not require a phone.

Our school allowed my 7 year old to leave with his then 10-year old brother. We live about 1/3 of a mile from school, but I doubt this entered into their "health & safety" assessment.

Surely all primary schools have a existing ban on devices in school, why aren't they just enforcing it?

Yes I am in England and its completely incorrect to say that seven year olds cannot leave school without being handed to an adult.

Are the school going to contact my child when I am going to be a couple of minutes late at the bus stop? How exactly? Do I ring the school and then they call the bus driver (who is driving and shouldn't be on the phone)?

The bus driver is going to contact me? He has the contact numbers for all 40 odd children on his bus does he?

Every child on those school buses has a phone. There are 15ish buses leaving the school every day.

As I have said my DSs wouldn't dare use their phones in class so I'm partially in agreement and probably derailing the thread slightly but to say that no seven year old needs to have a phone is simply not true.

YANBU, why would a 7yo need a phone? Dd is nearly 9yo and has asked for a phone but obviously I said no!! Maybe when she starts secondary school but I doubt it will be a smart phone as would be too worried about it getting nicked or broken.

I didn't get my first mobile phone until I was in my twenties!!

What happened to teaching kids phone numbers to ask an adult to call in an emergency? I still remember learning my grandmother's number when dsis and I were at a school holiday club for a day and my parents would be unreachable (pre-mobile days, grandma was at home). I also recall learning how to reverse a call from a phone box if I had no money on me.

Primary aged dc imo do not need their own mobile phone. They are very rarely without adequate supervision, be it at a friends house, school, out of school club etc. at a push at 10/11 borrowing a parents old one should be sufficient if they are going out on their own. Or simply calling from their destination to say they have arrived safely.

Maybe part of this does boil down to fewer payphones being accessible. There isn't one in our village for example.

But if a parent chooses to send a phone in to school with their child, they should accept it needs to be handed in to the office for safekeeping until the end of the day. There is no need for dc to have them in schools. There are so many things which could go wrong - the privacy of other pupils, bullying - both taking pictures and from others who may mock a child's phone for not being the latest model or so on.

In the OP's case, at primary school age, the school should be able to confiscate the phone and return it to the parent to ensure they are fully appraised of the situation and the expectations the school has with regards to their use. Whilst I would love to see them confiscated until the end of the week/term/school year, practically that will never happen as there would be a parents, uproar. But the inconvenience of having to attend the school office every day and sign to say they have received the phone back might make them think more carefully.

Of course, there is always the flip side that these aren't being confiscated because then the school has no responsibility to personal property. If little flossy takes her phone out to the playground, drops it while playing with it and smashes the screen, whose fault is it?

At ds's secondary phones are banned but in reality it is a 'no visible phones' policy. If they are seen then they are confiscated for 6 weeks. I don't know how this works legally but I do know that angry parents go in and shout about it but I don't know of anyone ever getting their phone back early. Lots of parents say they want their child to have a phone on the bus. I was always a bit about it but within the past couple of years there have been a few incidents where the bus has had problems and the parents haven't been informed through official channels. We are talking the roof of a double decker being ripped off, delays of over 4 hours and on one occasion the bus driver abandoning her bus in heavy traffic and walking home. Leaving the children sitting there not knowing what to do.
I commuted a long way to and from school but it was through a city and there were phoneboxes all over the place.

I've never heard of a policy in primary but I suspect if a kid got their phone out in class they would have their arse handed to them.

Incidentally, they are allowed to leave without an adult from yr 3 if it is pre-arranged.

All 3 of my DC have smartphones (9, 7, 4). They are old unused iPhones from various family members. What would be the point in buying a PAYG, topping up with credit etc when we have phones around the house that are already paid for? None of them can make calls, they work on wifi so they are able to iMessage and FaceTime when they are away from either home.

They take them with them between my house and their dads house. When their dad drops them at school on a Wednesday they have them with them. When I take them to school on a Friday they have them with them to go to his that night.

Its a phone, not a six inch blade. All 3 of them hand them to the office in the morning and get them back in the afternoon. This isn't about phones it's about DC not playing by the school rules.

Our school bus is contracted out to a bus company and doesn't get back to the village until gone 5pm. At this time there is nobody left at school to contact. There's certainly nobody answering the phone even if there might be a teacher somewhere on the premises.

This will out me but we had an incident where the bus didn't stop at the normal stop for some unknown reason. DS2 (7) was on the bus without his brother. He panicked and didn't know what to do, the bus had turned the corner and I could no longer see it (having run like a lunatic down the road to try to get the driver's attention.) DS2 managed to get the driver to stop and the driver just let him out on his own, without me there, in the pitch black dark on a road he didn't know.

Without a phone that could have ended disastrously.

If you tried to confiscate until the end of the week, let alone the term, you would find that every child concerned was a special snowflake who needed the phone every moment of every day, wouldn't you?

Special snowflake

Its not 20 years ago when every child had a stay at home mummy to pick them up everyday and walk them home.

Lots of children move between houses, get buses home, walk on their own and have legitimate reasons for needing a phone.

Its middle class snobbery at its worst, the fake incredulous disbelief that people actually give their children with smartphones

Pantone363 If they and the parents knew that using it in class would mean doing without it for a substantial period they would not do it and the parents would tell them not to. No child no matter how special needs a phone in class. Ever.

Of course they don't. Which is why the school has rules about it. But much of the outrage on this thread is about a child being in possession of a smartphone in the first place.

Clearly a child shouldn't have a phone out in class, the OP says the teacher was very angry, the child should be dealt with for ignoring school rules. The fact they own a smartphone is a red herring.

Exactly.

It should be dealt with in the same way as my DS2 constantly taking lego into class. He should be told off for it and not be permitted to play with it in class. That doesn't mean no seven year old should be allowed lego.

Well, my kids are in year 2 and have to be collected by an adult. No child is allowed off the premises alone until in the juniors. That is their policy.