Ten troubling, real-life examples of why kids should not have phones at school
After some powerful feedback prompted by her column last week calling for mobile phones to be banned at schools, some brave parents have reached out to InQueensland columnist Madonna King with frightening examples of why.
Example 1: Children filming a TikTok blackout challenge at school, where one child chokes another.
Example 2: An 11-year-old boy sharing the porn he discovered the night before, around his whole class.
Example 3: A 14-year-old girl sending a photo of her frenemy, topless, to every boy in year nine at another school.
Example 4: A younger girl filming her own vagina and uploading it to every contact in another girl’s smart phone, as the school bell rings.
Example 5: Parents asking a police officer to take down the naked photo of their daughter, now showing on a website hosted overseas. And him telling them that it is simply not possible.
Example 6: A boy stealing money to pay a bribe from someone online who is now threatening to share the private video he sent – thinking the recipient was a girl he was keen on.
Example 7: A girl, just out of her teens, who is being forced to remove her clothes and play with herself, on the orders of a criminal she thought was a girl friend from another school. The criminal had targeted her from a public friends’ list on her social media.
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Example 8: Year six girls, stripping on free online website Omegle, for fun.
Example 9: A year six boy taking what is commonly referred to as a ‘dick pic’ and sending it to year six girls with the tag #suckonthis.
Example 10: Police investigations into several cases involving the serious assault of school children by other school children. Frequently, the impetus for an assault, planned at school, can be to boost ‘likes’ on personal social media accounts.
Ten examples raised with me on the back of my column last week proposing Queensland be hauled into 2023, with a smartphone ban at school.
And the list could go on, to include the self-harm, and even suicide, of other children whose parents believe were driven by incessant schoolyard smartphone bullying.
Or the seven principals – all based in Queensland – who have now contacted me, asking how they could drive a change in policy.
Or the 11 teachers, including school well-being leaders, who told me this week that the Palaszczuk Government needs to understand what is happening in classrooms, where the smart phone has muted concentration and learning opportunities, personal interaction and even the ability to spell correctly.
Or those representing P&C associations who wonder about their rights and the role they might play in a debate that is hurting the hearts and grades of their children.
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Or the dozens of parents who are trying their best, and just want help to pull back on a decision they made to hand their child a smart phone.
Or experts like Susan McLean, a former police officer who now visits schools to talk about responsible social media use.
McLean says schools should remember they have a duty of care to provide a safe environment for children, and allowing the free and unsupervised use of phones made that impossible.
“If a child is showing porn at school for example, the school has breached its duty of care. The legal issues are often overlooked but are so important,’’ she says.
Indeed, McLean is aware of schools now being sued by parents who are “sick and tired of device misuse’’ in schools.
It’s a strong warning why smartphones should be banned at school.
But another reason, we don’t talk about, also needs discussion.
When our politicians and policy-makers were at school, they could find quiet time in their day; that space where they could listen and learn and ruminate and decide who they were and who they wanted to be.
That has been swallowed up by an instant gratification fuelled by social media, which now follows our children all day and all night. Fights. Challenges. Heartache. And constant comparison between their lives, and the lives of those popping up, usually photo-shopped, on their smart phone.
That makes it almost impossible for a teen to walk their own journey.
Social media is a terrific addition to modern lives, as is the motor car and even three-inch winter boots. But some things should now be allowed on school grounds.
A ban doesn’t have to mean a blanket ban either. Schools contacted me this week too, to explain their success in locking away phones at the start of the day, or collecting them in school hats, or even allowing them for 40 minutes during a science experiment.
Every State, except Queensland, can now see the value in banning phones during school hours, unless supervised.
How much more heartache does Education Minister Grace Grace need as evidence before she bans the use of smart phones – which have become the weapon of choice for too many teens – during school hours?
