Children could be banned from using smartphones in a UK city
St Albans could become the first city in the UK to ban smartphones for under-14s.
Headteachers from St Albans Primary Schools Consortium wrote a joint letter to parents and carers urging them to delay buying phones for their children.
The letter has been signed by 20 out of 24 primary school headteachers in the city.
While most schools already have a no-phone policy, the letter has been written to influence the wider culture of the city.
It says: ‘We encourage all parents to delay giving children a smartphone until they reach the age of 14, opting instead for a text/call phone alternative if necessary.
‘As head teachers we have committed to promoting our own schools as smartphone-free.
‘We believe we can all work together across St Albans and join the growing movement across the country to change the ‘normal’ age that children are given smartphones.’
The letter also states it is supporting the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign which is a grassroots movement aimed to keep childhood smartphone free.
Justine Elbourne-Cload, executive head of Cunningham Hill Schools, said there is a problem with children joining WhatsApp groups where they are bombarded with inappropriate material.
She told The Times: ‘There was a WhatsApp group that started in schools and then became a wider WhatsApp group and there was pornography. Somebody had joined from TikTok and was sending all sorts of dodgy images.’
She also highlighted other problems such as children between the age of five and seven using social media unsupervised, the intrusion of devices, and the impact using them has on children’s mental health.
Other problems highlighted include children ‘being connected at all times’ meaning children can’t escape from their peers.
Ms Elbourne-Cload said she hoped that in a few years time ‘it would be a shock to see a child under the age of 11… with a smartphone’.
She added: ‘It is far easier if it is the general norm that no children or very few children have smartphones. If the norm is they will walk around with old Nokia bricks, that’s what everyone will have and that will be fine. Because it always was fine. We’re just trying to roll back that age.’
But the policy idea has received some backlash for secondary school pupils who access their homework on smartphone apps and have to use buses that only allow tickets via an app.
The government unveiled new guidance earlier this year that would crackdown on smartphone use in schools.
Education secretary Gillian Keegan set out options for bans including devices being left at home, teachers collecting them, or having them out of sight in bags.
Esther Ghey, 37, mum of Brianna Ghey, has also been campaigning to restrict phone use among teenagers.
Brianna was murdered by two teenagers who plotted her death over WhatsApp and Snapchat.
One of her murderers, Scarlett Jenkinson, used a special browser to watch real-life torture and murder on the dark web.
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