Calls grow stronger for phone ban in region’s schools

AN impassioned plea is being extended to council officials and headteachers in the region to ban mobile phones in all schools.

John Magill, of Smartphone Free Childhood, who is also vice chair of the Regional Parent Forum, has written to all of them presenting evidence of the dangers of smartphones and AI for youngsters.

He is critical of the council’s new “Strict Guardrails” policy, believing it does not go far enough.

Instead, he wants to see moves to rid primaries and secondaries of pupils’ phones.

Mr Magill is furious about local authority claims in current school technology policies that smartphones enhance learning and teaching.

He said: “That framing must also be utterly removed from any policy this authority produces and replaced with language that reflects the reality.

“Smartphones cause significant, documented and escalating harm to children’s attainment, mental health, sleep, social development and safeguarding. The evidence for benefit to education is absent. The evidence for harm is overwhelming.”

He added: “There is no credible educational justification for primary-aged children having personal smartphones on school premises. This must be the baseline for all primary schools across the authority. No exceptions, other than formally documented medical or ASN requirements.”

In addition, he wants a complete restriction on the educational and social use of social media platforms on all council education devices and for them not to be a homework requirement either, along with a WiFi block on social media and entertainment streaming.

And he says staff need to set an example and stop using their personal smartphone in classrooms, corridors and shared spaces.

“Adults cannot credibly ask children to manage their relationship with devices, that adults themselves use visibly and habitually throughout the school day,” said Mr Magill.

The call to action also cover smart devices and wearables like watches, wireless earbuds and smart glasses.

Ideally, his campaign group believes basic mobile phones without internet access are a safe and adequate alternative for families who require their child to be contactable for transport or safety purposes.

He said: “A device that can make and receive calls meets every legitimate parental concern about safety and contact without giving the internet access to them, the harms, distractions, sexual exploitation and safeguarding risks that a smartphone brings.

“The authority should actively signpost this alternative.”

And pointing to the position in England, where legislation is coming in to ban phones in schools, Mr Magill believes Scotland, and Dumfries and Galloway, needs to follow suit ASAP.

“The question Dumfries and Galloway must now answer is not whether to act, but how much longer it intends to perpetrate these devices are good for learners to our parent councils, parents and confuse our children,” he added.