Should smart phones be banned for under 16s?

Man of Honour
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They are finally getting banned in most schools. I can’t wait, I’m so tired of them being on phones all the time or asking ‘can I use it just to do this’. We’re bringing in phone pouches that will lock their phone away and out of use until the end of the day.
 
Man of Honour
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how will this work?
genuine question..

Staff will ensure that the kids put their phones in pouches in morning reg and close them (the pouches lock). At the end of the day there are unlock stations that’ll be placed at key points that the kids will have to tap against to unlock the case before they leave.

There are a few workarounds, but you just hammer the kids if they are found in breach of the pouches.
 
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Man of Honour
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I’ll be glad if it just stops the constant question asking whether they can use their phone. They all have surfaces, so they have absolutely no reason to use a phone. If they need to contact home, do what we used to do and go though the office.
 
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Soldato
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Staff will ensure that the kids put their phones in pouches in morning reg and close them (the pouches lock). At the end of the day there are unlock stations that’ll be placed at key points that the kids will have to tap against to unlock the case before they leave.

There are a few workarounds, but you just hammer the kids if they are found in breach of the pouches.

Fair play if it works. I never knew just how disruptive they are in class until our lot started school and insisted on the latest iPhone because their friends have then.

I got my first phone in 1998, a Motorola brick, years after I left school. Smartphones weren't really a thing until 2007. Even then very few had them. Now basically every child 15+ has one.
 
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Fair play if it works. I never knew just how disruptive they are in class until our lot started school and insisted on the latest iPhone because their friends have then.

I got my first phone in 1998, a Motorola brick, years after I left school. Smartphones weren't really a thing until 2007. Even then very few had them. Now basically every child 15+ has one.

I’ve never seen the kids so hooked on their phones and following literally everything tik tok tells them too. I’d probably be the same at their age.
 
Caporegime
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They are finally getting banned in most schools. I can’t wait, I’m so tired of them being on phones all the time or asking ‘can I use it just to do this’. We’re bringing in phone pouches that will lock their phone away and out of use until the end of the day.
Schools should never have allowed them in the first place.

we'd get told off for day dreaming or looking out of the window too much in the 80s and 90s

I got my first phone in 1998, a Motorola brick, years after I left school. Smartphones weren't really a thing until 2007. Even then very few had them. Now basically every child 15+ has one.

google says the 3310 was out in 2001/2002 and almost everyone had one of those.

most 15/16 year olds probably started getting phones around 2003/2004. probably hand me down 3310s
 
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Associate
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I thought it was already banned. My wife works in a secondary school and the kids are not allowed phones inside. Even in their bags is banned. If they need to contact parents or vice versa it’s via the school phone system. This is a 1000+ pupil state school, good reputation.
 
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Schools should never have allowed them in the first place.

we'd get told off for day dreaming or looking out of the window too much in the 80s and 90s



google says the 3310 was out in 2001/2002 and almost everyone had one of those.

most 15/16 year olds probably started getting phones around 2003/2004. probably hand me down 3310s

The 3310 wasn't a smart phone, it was just a phone with MMS and of course snake. The first proper smartphones, as in one with a touch screen much like we have now was the google g1, which came out in 2007, but it was the iPhone 1 that catapulted the industry, by the end of the year most adults had a smart phone.

Huge difference in what we had vs now, sure you may of had a 3310, but you weren't glued to it 24/7 with the likes of instagram/tiktok/snapchat desperately trying to get your attention.
 
Soldato
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i would say the samsung tocco i had was the first smart ish phone, but i had a razer for 2 years after that one
I had the HTC TYTN II in 2007 as my first touchscreen smartphone it came with a stylus. It ran Windows mobile OS and had 3G HSPA. Something our telcos didn’t even have yet. The HTC TYTN I was probably the first HTC smartphone but I doubt it had HSPA.
 
Soldato
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We seem to be a long way off a ban for under 16's, rather it's socially acceptable for reception age children to have them!



Unfortunately so.

The amount of parents pushing toddlers around with mobile phones as a distraction/ entertainment is saddening and will result in social difficulties later on.
 
Soldato
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I don't know whether they are bad or not.
I do wish the government would pay more attention to this sort of thing. They should have evaluated the impact and taken action years ago.
 
Caporegime
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I think a rather significant issue is that people are growing up without siblings who I believe (usually) make up for parental shortcomings and since that's not happening the kids simply don't have any street sense at all.
 
Caporegime
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I think a rather significant issue is that people are growing up without siblings who I believe (usually) make up for parental shortcomings and since that's not happening the kids simply don't have any street sense at all.

Kids have zero street sense because no one goes out anymore. We push our daughter into doing clubs etc but all they want to do is play online and chat on their phones. Social media sells them all a lie and truely believe they will become streamers and content creators in the future. Work is just beneath them. Also a lot of parents and adults are naive into the culture of teenagers today compared to 10-15 years ago. It has changed massively.

Our daughter has time limits on all devices and it hasn't been easy. It can cause a lot of resentment because her "friends" can do what they want. Hopefully she will see the clear picture and be thankful when she has finished her schooling and is living by herself because it is only going to get harder to have a good life going forward in Britain.

There was a good Joe Rogan podcast recently about this issue and it is an eye opener as I believe it is an even bigger issue in the states.

Schools being able to ban phones during school time is a huge positive and step in the right direction in my opinion.
 
Soldato
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Our daughter has time limits on all devices and it hasn't been easy. It can cause a lot of resentment because her "friends" can do what they want. Hopefully she will see the clear picture and be thankful when she has finished her schooling and is living by herself because it is only going to get harder to have a good life going forward in Britain.
We have the same concerns ours have Amazon Fire for Kids and we keep the time limit quite tight but I do worry as they go to secondary school they'll feel pressure for smartphones because everyone else has one. Currently they have Nokia dumb phones which we only give them when we go out so they can call us if they get separated, rest of the time they sit in my study. It's less mine and my wife's attitude we worry about and more others kids parents, many of whom seem far more casual.
 
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