Should smart phones be banned for under 16s?

Allnamestaken said:
Having a phone so I can easily contact my kids is a positive.

It’s all the associated issues with phones that are the problem, social media etc. not the phones themselves.
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Quite.

With kids in secondary school where they have to catch a bus every day, them having a phone is a God-send.

There have been multiple issues with the buses this year (outside contractor) where the kids have had to call us to come and pick them up. The GPS tagging is helpful too so we can see where they / the buses are.
 
bloodiedathame said:
So many posters putting way too much faith in other people's parenting abilities.
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Where do you draw the line though? Why should the responsible parents (and their children) be penalised for the failings of the others?

I don't agree with an overall ban - except in schools (which is what our eldest's school effectively has), but that's no different to banning handheld video games, comics, card games, or any other distractions which would prevent them learning. The distraction is the problem, not the fact it's a phone.

I do think some things are required:

Age restrictions on social media (16 or 18, not sure which to be honest) which must be verified with government issued ID (e.g. driving licence l, birth certificate or passport).

Standardised filtering/parental control software, currently every ISP router, games console, mobile phone OS, desktop PC etc. has a different set of software.

For those of us who are technical, it's a pain, but useable. For non-technical people, I can understand why they might get lost in it and just not bother. E.g. my son has an android phone, switch and PC, they each have their own apps, set of controls, which makes setting screen time a pain. E.g. if we want him to be allowed an hour of screen time, we can't set that across all devices, each device has its own counter.

Would consider writing my own, but (understandably) the APIs for device control aren't very accessible.

It's probably pie in the sky thinking - the govt. doesn't exactly have a great track record, and there's too much competition in the market for any single piece of software to become standardised
 
Haggisman said:
Where do you draw the line though? Why should the responsible parents (and their children) be penalised for the failings of the others?

I don't agree with an overall ban - except in schools (which is what our eldest's school effectively has), but that's no different to banning handheld video games, comics, card games, or any other distractions which would prevent them learning. The distraction is the problem, not the fact it's a phone.

I do think some things are required:

Age restrictions on social media (16 or 18, not sure which to be honest) which must be verified with government issued ID (e.g. driving licence l, birth certificate or passport).

Standardised filtering/parental control software, currently every ISP router, games console, mobile phone OS, desktop PC etc. has a different set of software.

For those of us who are technical, it's a pain, but useable. For non-technical people, I can understand why they might get lost in it and just not bother. E.g. my son has an android phone, switch and PC, they each have their own apps, set of controls, which makes setting screen time a pain. E.g. if we want him to be allowed an hour of screen time, we can't set that across all devices, each device has its own counter.

Would consider writing my own, but (understandably) the APIs for device control aren't very accessible.

It's probably pie in the sky thinking - the govt. doesn't exactly have a great track record, and there's too much competition in the market for any single piece of software to become standardised
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100% agree with all of that. In a perfect world.

It's also why I think the easier, more realistic option is to bring out the banhammer.
 
bloodiedathame said:
100% agree with all of that. In a perfect world.

It's also why I think the easier, more realistic option is to bring out the banhammer.
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If we're talking about realistic, then I'm not sure a ban would work either - would you abide by it? I really don't know if I would to be honest...

The more draconian the "solution", the more likely people are to rebel against it. Just look at what happened with prohibition in the 20s, or how well the "war on drugs" is going.
 
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Haggisman said:
If we're talking about realistic, then I'm not sure a ban would work either - would you abide by it? I really don't know if I would to be honest...

The more draconian the "solution", the more likely people are to rebel against it. Just look at what happened with prohibition in the 20s, or how well the "war on drugs" is going.
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Most of the parents I know wouldn't be against it. They find policing their kids' usage a total pain and just another thing to have to do in today's over-complicated world.
 
Allnamestaken said:
Having a phone so I can easily contact my kids is a positive.

It’s all the associated issues with phones that are the problem, social media etc. not the phones themselves.
Click to expand...
When I went to look at my old secondary school with my niece, their policy for phones was no smartphones - dumbphones only. Now I'm fairly sure I've seen dumbphones with facebook/whatsapp/internet access, but when I asked the kid taking us round if it helps she said it did. And when I asked how many people still have smartphones in a bag she said very few.

IMHO, phones in school shouldn't have cameras either - but I imagine getting a dumbphone without a camera might be tricky.
 
I would ban smartphones for under 16 year old at school.

I'm 50/50 on the dumb phones. Because how many times did we (the pre mobile phone people) need to use a phone at school? Me? Never.

Also there seems to be an issue with kids leaving class to mess around. Apparently they are saying they need to use the toilet as an excuse.

The only use a mobile phone as is going to and from school.
 
Amazed I managed to survive primary and secondary school without a phone. I got the train / bus to school through my whole secondary school time. If bus was cancelled / late then I walked. If Train was late, I got the bus.. etc. Parents only worried if I was hours late home. I got drenched many many times. Walked in the snow, wind, heat.
Different times I guess, but that was 20 years ago. Feels like only yesterday though.

So for me mobile phones are good for obvious reasons, social media is poison, especially for developing minds. It's something I've learned a lot about the last year during anxiety therapy. So keep phones, ban social media for anyone under a certain age, and no phone use in schools.

Addiction to tik tok etc these days is off the charts. The amount of times I've been in a restaurant / pub sitting near other people with kids and they literally sit there for 2hrs straight scrolling through post after post. I certainly wouldn't allow it if I was a parent, but there must be immense pressure from kids to have it. It's not only the mental / brain affects it has, but also on relationship building but the physical affects. In 20 years time their fingers and hands will be useless.

It's got to stop, it really is causing severe problems for kids and we're just starting to see it now as those bought up with it enter workplaces / "life" for the first time.
 
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Yes absolutely, but there no way to enforce.it. the only way is for schools to ban the use of them during school time.

I'm.sure in years to come the correlation between mental health and self deletion rates will be attributed to social media and the impact on young minds it has.

Certainly noticed it with the young teenagers in my family take the phones away they become nice sociable people. Put give them back they are rude, obnoxious and anti social.
 
MadMossy said:
Yes absolutely, but there no way to enforce.it. the only way is for schools to ban the use of them during school time.

I'm.sure in years to come the correlation between mental health and self deletion rates will be attributed to social media and the impact on young minds it has.

Certainly noticed it with the young teenagers in my family take the phones away they become nice sociable people. Put give them back they are rude, obnoxious and anti social.
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Its already well known that deleting social media makes people much happier. Its not even up for debate. The problem is that as a child if you aren't in, you are out. You need to fit in with your peers or you will probably have a bad time. Its amazing that despite this generation seemingly all being about mental health, kindness etc they are far worse than older generations for being nasty to each other.
 
17% of 3-4 year olds have a phone.

www.birmingham.ac.uk

Back to School: At what age does a smartphone feature on the ‘back to school’ checklist? - University of Birmingham

With parents across the country getting children ready to start a new school term, we ask, at what point do they provide their child with their first phone?
www.birmingham.ac.uk www.birmingham.ac.uk

The Internet is NOT a child friendly area. It never was, and never will be fully controllable.

I think the government need to make a deal with a phone manufacturer('s) and create a locked down version of a school phone, that also has a locked down version of the OS - similarly to the locked down windows version some schools use.
 
could say it's like smoking parents/adults setting an example that children follow .. phillip Morris Zuck, Musk.

MP's, also, clearly setting a bad example, have to say that the productivity using smart phone small screen keyboard mouse , compared to a laptop is low,
but the bill gates laptop didn't work out.
 
Like many things, they're a useful tool if the correct measures are taken. My daughter's secondary school has a general rule that phones are to be turned off except for when they're used for tests - most of the homework apps have been designed primarily for smartphones and are pretty much gacha games.
 
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.
 
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