Esther Ghey, school phone ban

[Davros]

I heard her on R4’s Today programme this morning. I thought she was great, really impressive. I wonder how far down the rabbit hole Brianna would have gone if this campaign had been around then.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgng2l7d36o.amp

Agree 100% with a school smartphone ban. Challenge is the parents who think their child should be an exception and a need for schools to have the support to face down such parents.

I agree with her 100% about this and when she called for kids under the age of 16/18 to have brick phones.

I would support a ban. Unfortunately, my DD’s school make it impossible for her not to have her smartphone. Her timetable is accessed through an app and they do not provide a paper one. The bus pass the school provide her with is also on an app.

I don't agree.
People had exactly the same fear about books, TV, computers, etc.
It's all just an access to information which can be used for good or bad. As adults we have to monitor what they do, not ban the resources.

I listened to it too and it was interesting that she expected schools to wholesale enact the discipline her own child consistently refused to abide by, and she as a parent couldn’t curb either. But I think ultimately the evidence of elevated gcse results are going to be the most effective lever of this much needed initiative in secondary schools.

Your DDs school will have to find another way if they decide to implement this ban.

My children are adults so it’s not something I have to worry about but I support a ban.
I was on a bus recently, packed full of teenagers and it was awful, a group were taking pictures of another girl and all laughing and taking the piss. I was bullied at school over thirty years ago, phones must make it horrendous for some kids.
I also would put a ban on social media until 18 at least.

Yep, I'd also support a school ban.

I was shocked that my DCs new secondary school allowed kids to have phones on them all day. I just automatically assumed they'd be made to put phones in their lockers before registration and they'd.have to stay there until the end of the school day. I only found out they're allowed their phones to be on them all day long when my DC received a detention (quite rightly) for filming a TikTok video during a class. When I told DC off for taking it out of his locker both he and the teacher said phones dont have to go in lockers, they're just not allowed to have them out of their bags during lessons.

It's madness to me that a ban during school hours isn't already a thing.

I agree with this to an extent. Kids will have phones and access to SM and so better to ensure they have appropriate access, learn critical thinking, are taught the dangers and to step away, and be properly parented to ensure this is implemented.

However SM has is expert at targeting an audience and influencing behaviour. It's addictive, if a book is dull you can't immediately get 10 recommendations of what you might like to read next and immediate access.

I'd support a ban or severe restriction whilst they get something suitable in place.

I'm all honesty what we teach and how we teach it needs a radical overhaul to provide skills for the modern and rapidly changing world.

I just don't understand why she is doing this. Our schools have phones turned off or silent in bags. No phone use at all in school, very strictly enforced.

I agree with the previous poster who pointed out that this woman is calling for schools to 'ban' when she herself in fact admits that she could not get her son off the phone in their own home at night ...

Having said this i support a ban 100%

I was just shocked at a few revelations on the news about the situation with this lady's child. ''Refusing'' to put the phone away at school. Bunking lessons to film tic rock videos of himself cavorting around in the loos. School flagging up hundreds of safeguarding incidents to the mum but nothing changing.

We have to support the schools if we want them to be able to carry out a phone ban.

Exactly as others have said - yes, support a ban in school.

But kids are out of school for far more hours then they're in. Where is the parents' accountability in this campaign?

Not all schools and not formally enforced by education leaders either, a school can set its own rules re phones.

Yes I remember seeing some of the pictures her child had posted online and they were in school uniform in very provocative poses. I don’t know if it was on TikTok but they could have been made at home. Whether they’d had access to a phone in school time seems irrelevant. Clearly the parents weren’t checking what they were doing on their phone.

If it was legislated for so that there was universal demand for it, it would be very easy to create school-compliant smartphones which can only install and run school-approved apps eg for timetables and bus passes and things needed in lessons, but no browser and no social media. It's already possible to have phones locked down like this with existing parental controls but it doesn't protect a child to use those when they are spending break times every day with kids whose parents let them have free access to everything.

(Sorry I didn't mean to quote a random post, but can't remove it in edit)

I feel for Esther Ghey. There's no worse pain i can imagine than losing your child under such horrific circumstances.

But she's demanding that schools do what was her job. Take the damn phone away.

She could have ended the contract. She could have turned the internet off at home.

Why didn't she?

It's interesting. Brianna's skin and make up are perfect, the hair is immaculate, the nails I would frankly stab myself through the eye with in minutes.

But - unlike that picture with the chocolate bar that's always used - next to an actual woman, the proportions are all wrong and the poor kid is obviously male.

I saw her being interviewed earlier today and, whilst I have a lot of sympathy for someone who’s lost their child in the way she did, my eyebrows were raised to the roof at some of what she said.

Things like her child punching holes in the wall if she “attempted” to take the phone off him. Knowing that he was obsessively using it during school time, as well as at home and yet doing nothing (but somehow blaming the school for being ineffective).

I don’t disagree with the principle of taking phones out of schools / classrooms, but where’s the parental responsibility gone?

I find that shocking. To have timetables and learning materials accessible by smartphone is completely expected, even necessary, in a university - but a secondary school?

As for primary, what on earth do kids that age want with a smartphone? But several kids at my son’s primary have had them for some years. DC only just got his first phone (a brick phone) as a new starter at secondary (they must be switched off at all times whilst on the site or the kids face sanctions). He’s only 11. A smartphone is an outright ‘no’ until he’s much older.

As to the Ghey case, I listened to a podcast with tech experts discussing the kind of horrific online content Brianna’s murderers had been accessing. The fact that they even knew where to find this stuff is mind-boggling and the knowledge needed to keep on top of monitoring this stuff is extensive. Likewise, bullying can’t be so easily switched off if a kid has a phone through which they can be reached constantly. It must seem that there is no escape anywhere.

IMO some children are given unfettered access to these things from far too young an age. Esther Ghey is right. Too late for hindsight in her tragic situation but it’s not too late to help others.

The problem with phones, which did not apply to books (not sure books were ever seen as bad for kids?), TVs, computers etc, is that the children have constant access to it in school. This means that children are checking their phones during lessons, may be bullied or bullying on social media in school etc. There is no need to have a phone in school (and schools that use phones for time tables etc need this pointing out) and thus phones could be put in lockers for the day and collected at home time (thus removing the problem of bus access etc). If a parent needs to contact a child in school then they should ring the office anyway, not the child.

I think you may not have heard Brianna’s mother. The smart phone was completely addictive for Brianna. It seemed to take up her life even in the middle of the school day. Her behaviour in school became bad on occasion. She also came across highly harmful elements and encounters because of it. Her mother described it as addiction.

Neither books not TV in the past could take over so much.

I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but I imagine her thinking is more that it is easier to get everyone to do it, than to get one child off their phone when everyone else is on it.

I am not absolutely sure but think Brianna may have been autistic and not only vulnerable to harm but also difficult to take the phone from without causing huge upset and rows.

I was shocked at the five calls a day from school about phone use and not knowing what to do. I would have cancelled the phone contract on day two!