Swiped - The school that banned mobile phones

[chaosmaker]

Watched both episodes and was fairly astounded as to how clueless the presenters were about phone use in children and the sites that can be accessed. Also algorithms.

The children in the experiment were 12 with smartphones that they spent hours on and this seemed to stop them doing things they should be doing at 12 like playing and socialising in person.

I'm just interested in why people just don't give their children dumb phones if they think they need them. The studies on brain development seem to point to traits that can be present in ND so given that fact, I'm wondering if that is correlated with so much SEN and ND diagnoses in children.

It's an interesting programme and worth watching just for the science bits if nothing else. Also for how the children themselves felt during the 21 days they didn't have their phones and other devices for.

Reasonable - children should only have dumb phones and parents could make this a cultural shift en masse

Unreasonable - children need to learn social media at any cost and must have tech.

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.

Yes, I'm amazed how many are allowed to have their phone in their bedroom overnight. My partner said that his son used his as his alarm clock as I wasn't really happy with him having it overnight - not a step mum and we lived hours apart. My response was get an alarm clock.

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 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.

What happens when tech fails. Surely it's a good idea to be able to use 'analogue' stuff like being able to read timetables, know how to buy physical tickets. This is not for just fails but also for vulnerabilities in systems or cyber attacks. There really should be fall backs.

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!

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.

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!

A school local to me has a phone ban.

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

Also here for the TP love but on smartphones don’t most schools ban them? My DCs school does and has done for years (state comp) although all their homework is on an app and they do occasionally get asked to use them in class.

Reason for quoting is because we went to parents night recently and about 3 teachers in I realised it looked like DH was on his phone the whole time - he was but he was taking notes.

My year 7 has a dumb phone and I made a thread on it a few weeks ago after finding out how unusual that was and most people thought I was insane 😆

I think smart phones are fine if parents monitor responsibly. Both my 10 and 13 yr olds have them and have had them since yr 4 (I can feel the judgement seeping through the screen!....). They r very responsible children. Very well behaved and sensible. We discuss the internet and their usage of the phones and internet safety etc.. almost daily and they are learning so much.

I think by the time my children have completely free access to all the apps etc.. at age 16, they'll b very skilled and able to navigate their way around their phones sensibly and safely and I won't have to worry. I think a gradual introduction to phones from a young age, with close monitoring and supervision at the start is helpful preparation for increased freedom.on the phone as they get older.

I understand people's reservations and respect people choosing not to give their children a phone. However in our case I think they've been brilliant!

I will have to read a bit more research but in my very small sample of local village friends and acquaintances, the three children we know with autism diagnoses are from families where screens are strictly forbidden and the children have not been given a phone (years 8, 7 and 6), so links between increased smart phone use and autism don't ring true for us (in fact I'm our v small.sample, the opposite is true).

My children are very social and my youngest is out playing with his friends every weekend, using his smart phone responsibly to.co-ordinate meet ups with his friends and keep me updated of his whereabouts and time he's due home etc..

I really don't have an issue with my children using their phones. I understand why some people choose not to give children a phone, but I don't think those that do should be negatively judged.

You don't need to go that far, or even any distance into the future, schools are clear indicators of this already with massive numbers kids who have various degrees of ND that you never used to have.

The massive crisis in teen mental health has come from somewhere and it can't just be covid / austerity.

I volunteer in DDs primary and there's now a whole cohort of around 20 kids who simply don't go into assembly as they can't sit still / listen etc so have free (supervised) reign outdoors instead.

ADHD and autism diagnoses are off the charts compared to 10 years ago and yes I know that a lot of that is down to education and awareness but in my whole primary school there were perhaps 2/3 kids who loooking back would have met the level of behaviour that now 5-10 kids in each class do

But equally I think the world has moved well past the days whereby it would be in any way better to just say “no smartphones for kids” full stop. So much of life, work, education, socialisation is online now and not allowing kids to access & learn that until they’re 18 would arguably do more harm than good.

"The world" is just people though. If people want thing to change they change. It's up to us what we do about this.

Your post demonstrates a terrifying naivety about the damage smart phones do to young minds.

The link is between smart phone use and ADHD, nothing to do with ASD.

Of course we can go back. And at least some of those cards you listed don't have to be on a phone, you can get an actual card.

oh come on, EVERYONE understood that lockdown wasn't ideal for kids - that's why so many efforts were focussed around trying to get them back to school before lifting any other restrictions. Schools re-opening was one of the highest priorities at each point of lockdown - kids were going back to school while adults were still on furlough/being told to wfh, before people living alone were even allowed to bubble i.e. meet up with anyone.

Surely three years is a bit fast to completely re-write history?

The stat that shocked me was 20% of FOUR year olds having their own phone! That is terrifying. It was interesting how the children admitted that they felt better without their phones at the end of the three weeks, and had less anxiety etc.

We need widespread scientific studies into the issue before a whole generation is severely damaged. Fifty years ago our parents would smoke while we were sitting on their knees, and thought nothing of it. I think in 50 years we’ll look back in horror at what we’ve exposed our children to via smartphones.

Sorry just to chime in here - I'm against really young kids having screens too, but screens do not cause autism or ADHD or sensory processing disorder etc.

They may exasperate symptoms in some cases, they may (in extreme cases) cause symptoms/behaviour that can be mistaken/appear similar to it, due to how they effect the brain etc, but they do not actually cause/make a child ND.

My son is 5 and awaiting assessment for autism. He's never used a tablet and never had my phone propped in a buggy or watched YouTube in a restaurant or whatever. He's still very likely ND.

There is a middle ground between dumb phone and unlimited social media. So I'm not voting.

But I think the horse has bolted with regards to phones. But I also think phones get the blame of MH issues when really tons of other stuff feed in to that including lack of hope for jobs, too much testing and pressure in schools, and then all the 'Identity' dilemmas and boys in girls spaces. And the be kind message.

Are you answering the wrong person? That's just a weird response, the poster was demonstrating how sensible her DC was being?

Do your children have to have all those things on their phones?
My children have a physical bus pass and bank card.

I also think phones get the blame of MH issues when really tons of other stuff feed in to that.... all the 'Identity' dilemmas and boys in girls spaces. And the be kind message.

And where are children and young people getting those messages from?

Both my sons have a phone and they are 12 and 14. My youngest son got one last year when he started getting public transport and in some ways it’s great. He’s very sociable and he’ll play online games while a group of them are all on a call together. He doesn’t have social media anyway as he isn’t interested (we wouldn’t allow it anyway)
But he has spoken to me recently about how he has found over this last year that he has difficulties focusing in class, gets distracted unless he’s doing something he really likes. I do think that because he does watch YouTube videos, it has shortened his attention span.

I’m thrilled he’s talked to me about it and we have come up together with some strategies to help; regular longer music practice, longer reading with me and by himself, screen time limits which he came up with and I have set up for him, he’s taken YouTube off his phone completely to avoid temptation. I’m so proud of him for noticing the difference that having the phone has made. I guess the problem is that if you start with a phone very young, you just assume that you are how you are because you have no frame of reference, whereas he can remember how he was in class pre phone.