The UK government announced this week that it will make existing guidance statutory, a move that ministers had previously resisted, by tabling an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill, regarded by many as the biggest piece of child protection legislation in decades.
The island will inevitably consider the English update. Yesterday Sophie Roughsedge, former Les Beaucamps head who is now head of education operations, reinforced the local secondary schools ‘off and away’ policy. Smartphones are not permitted at all in primary schools.
Education is currently running a survey on the issue, looking to cover pupils, education staff, parents and carers on the impact of smartphones on young people’s learning and wellbeing.
‘As part of this work, we will also consider these latest developments in England,’ she said.
‘Any future changes will be carefully assessed and tailored to reflect the needs of our local island context.’
Emma Lawlor, of local campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood Guernsey, welcomed the news of the ban in England but said the current guidance required improvement.
‘The guidance must exclude the “not seen, not heard” policy, which we know just does not work,’ she said.
‘Most schools who say they have banned smartphones are currently following this “not seen” policy, which is not effective.
‘A really clear message coming from Education and Health would take the onus off parents and teachers.’
She said she would like to see the island taking a lead on the issue.
‘We are in a unique position where we can put policies in place quickly without it needing to go through various stages of parliament.
‘Smartphones have not been proved to provide any benefit to children but we are aware of many significant harms they are causing. We need to change the norm around children having access to smartphones and social media and a total ban in schools would support this.
‘The benefits of a move like this by the States would be huge in terms of educational attainment, mental health and wellbeing, physical health and school attendance, all things that have been linked to be affected by smartphone use.’
In light of the news from the UK, she said the focus seemed to have shifted to pouches and lockers being used to enforce the ban, which was a distraction from the real problem of smartphones being harmful to children.
‘Pouches do not remove the risk of seeing disturbing content on the way to school, or on the school bus. It is also not a cost-effective solution and will require taxpayers’ money to be sent to install and maintain.’
She would like to see a ‘brick phone’ policy across all schools, which would require no spending for schools and very minimal cost for parents.
‘We are waiting for a unified policy letter that was promised some time ago making the smartphone policy in Guernsey clear to all parents and teachers. Given the movement in the UK, we feel this is the least Guernsey could be doing.’
Deputy Sally Rochester, who has been outspoken about her views about children and smartphones, agreed that brick phones could be the best way forward.
‘They are relatively low cost and save the cost of infrastructure in schools, as well as encouraging parents to only provide brick rather than smartphones to youngsters,’ she said.
‘We can ban phones in schools here without the heavy-handed need for legislation, in my opinion. Education policy changes should be sufficient.
‘The survey being delivered at the moment will help us understand how this might work in local schools.
‘Banning smartphones in schools without carefully considering the role of technology in the classroom may be solving only half of the problem.’