Swiped: The school that banned smartphones

When parents working in Silicon Valley are banning the use of phones for their children because of attention deficit and addiction we know we're in trouble..

I haven’t seen the documentary, thanks for the heads up. I worry about screen time on developing brains and minds. My grandchildren aged 8 and I have iPads. The 5 and 6 year olds have old phones on which they can play games. Time is limited and they all love outdoor play, drawing, painting and watching a movie.
The iPads are locked so they can’t access unsuitable sites,

It’s a real dilemma is t it

I feel as youbdo, recognising the benefits technology brings, I believe boundaries needed to be put in place at the onset of the Internet, it will be a battle I don't think will be won now, utterly definitely more safeguarding needs putting in place.
Children are losing communication and social skills.

I found this programme very disturbing. If responsible parents don't understand the dangers what hope is there for children of irresponsible parents? I was particularly upset by the doctor's reference to the effects on two and three year olds. We definitely need some boundaries a soon as possible!

Grandmagrewit
There’s every possibility that those words will come back and bite your son.

Studies have shown that children, yes, children are loosing grey matter.
www.thebrainworkshop.com/blog/the-impact-of-excessive-screen-time-on-childrens-brains/#:~:text=According%20to%20Psychology%20Today%2C%20multiple,%2C%20impulse%20control%2C%20and%20organising.

A local academy school banned smart phones in their school at least 8 years ago. A new ruling has seen eight more in the Academy trust doing the same from this September. Any phones found are confiscated, given back at the end of the day.
Both grandchildren attended these schools, and were not phased by the rule.

How will parents keep in touch with their children? - "I'm going to be late home from work as I'm stuck in traffic. Don't go off, wait for me to get in."

I see nothing wrong with phones being confiscated, and given back at the end of the school day.,

I predict that in 10 years time possibly earlier there will be a ban in most countries on smartphone usage for under 16s.

My granddaughters school has a no phones ban but what the school does is without warning the whole class will be told to go to the school hall. There they will be told to take their coats off where the staff will pat down the coats.
Any phones found will be confiscated and there will be detention, and, they are not allowed on any up coming school jollies.

History will look back on this time and say what the hell were you thinking 😡

I don't know what the rules are at my grandson's grammar school, but it is so strictly academic that doubt if they would allow them.

My grandson had his phone confiscated, and the rule is that only a parent can go to collect it, after school.
Great, except I was in hospital, and there isn't a parent to collect it.

Since I'd only been taken in that day, he was left not knowing where I was, where he was supposed to be going, and with nobody to help him find out.

With respect, I think that some of you who haven't watched this programme may be missing the point here. Of course, all schools should ban the use of phones during school hours and many do, but the point of this project was to remove the children's smartphones completely - for a period of 21 days. The majority of these 13 year olds were spending up to 6 hours a day on their phones - all of this outside school hours - and some were not falling asleep at night until 2am! The children who died were watching this stuff in their rooms on their own and their parents had no idea that they were accessing suicide content. For those of you who have mentioned not being able to contact children to alert them to a delay or children not having the means to contact their parents for whatever reason - this could be easily resolved by allowing children under 16 to possess only a "non-smart phone" - now apparently called a "brick phone".; the type we all used to have in order to communicate by text or phone call, without giving them any access to the social media and internet sites that are potentially so dangerous.

MissAdventure

My grandson had his phone confiscated, and the rule is that only a parent can go to collect it, after school.
Great, except I was in hospital, and there isn't a parent to collect it.

Since I'd only been taken in that day, he was left not knowing where I was, where he was supposed to be going, and with nobody to help him find out.

A nurse would have phoned the school to let them know where you were. In fact they would phone anyone for you as it was an emergency, even if not, I've made many calls for patients.

I'm sure they would have, but he needed somewhere to go, which he couldn't sort out without his phone, and I was having esophageal bleeding at the time, so was having them banded.

It's something to bear in mind, that not everyone has people ready to step in at an emergency.

My neighbour went to the school and absolutely insisted they gave her the phone.
It was pure luck she was around to take charge.

This was at the end of the school day, too.

MissAdventure

My grandson had his phone confiscated, and the rule is that only a parent can go to collect it, after school.
Great, except I was in hospital, and there isn't a parent to collect it.

Since I'd only been taken in that day, he was left not knowing where I was, where he was supposed to be going, and with nobody to help him find out.

Doesn’t your GS’s school operate a system of Emergency Contacts? That was standard at my DD’s school. If you didn’t have anyone you could nominate as your EC, they would find a suitable person for you.

In practice it was mostly used in weather emergencies but it meant every child had a safety net.

husband wrote code removed phones from our house own just landline.. reason use computers, i see can see what they were doing
and did not give them . until old enough to buy their own

My kids attended school in Sweden and from primary school and even 15 years ago the local village school required that phones were handed in at morning registration and then returned at the end of the day.

I was happy that the kids had phones for the journeys as they could be unpredictably. On one occasion where a blizzard was raging, it was around minus 10C and about 2 feet of new snow, my dd's school bus was run off the road by a car that failed to yield as required on the single track and the school bus ended on its side in the ditch. The bus radio was damaged and in the end it was a pupil mobile phone that called for help - her dad - and he arrived on his tractor to pull them out of the ditch.

dotpocka

husband wrote code removed phones from our house own just landline.. reason use computers, i see can see what they were doing
and did not give them . until old enough to buy their own

You still have a landline? All landlines were removed in my area in 2018.

SuDomin

I didn't have anyone to name as an emergency contact.

The downside of being totally alone, I'm afraid, and my girls illness.
It tends to bore people after a while, when it takes over your life, and friends drift away.
I've only just made a friend to put down as my contact, but my boy has left school now.

Mind you, my fierce neighbour did a sterling job of getting the phone back.