A group of London schools have announced they will stop using smartphones, in a sign of growing public concern about phone-based childhoods.
Headteachers at 17 of the 20 state secondary schools in Southwark, south London, have taken collective action to wean their pupils off smartphones, specifically hoping to also address the disadvantages of their use outside the school gates. the school.
The other three public schools in the municipality are working to introduce this policy.
Schools will also help families and students understand the well-documented disadvantages of smartphone and social media use among young people. These include mental health issues, addiction to screen time, the impact on sleep and attention span, access to graphic and inappropriate content, and an increased risk of theft and muggings.
“We were moved to collaborate after seeing first-hand the negative impact of smartphones and social media on our children’s wellbeing and education,” said Mike Baxter, head of City of London Academy.
“While the issues we had to address generally occurred outside of school hours, it was often at school where these negative behaviors were exposed,” he added.
Schools have agreed that if a student uses a phone during the school day, it will be confiscated. If the phone is a traditional mobile phone – without access to Wi-Fi – it will be returned relatively quickly. However, if the phone is a smartphone, it will not be returned for a week, or until the parents pick it up themselves.
The measures will affect more than 13,000 young people in one of London’s highest-performing boroughs. All secondary schools will enforce the policy for children in Years 7 to Year 9. However, several schools in the group are taking a “whole school” approach.
The secondary principal group is also in contact with the district’s elementary principal leaders, hoping to establish a district-wide approach.
“Creating this positive change for the wellbeing and success of young people in Southwark is at the heart of this collective drive,” Baxter said. “Children start acquiring smartphones from the age of four. “We could make a big difference if every parent in this district knew what every school says about smartphones.”
Jessica West, principal at Ark Walworth Academy, said schools had to take action after phone companies failed to do so. “There have been many calls for stricter measures from ‘Big Tech,’ but action is woefully slow and that leaves our children at risk,” she said. “Therefore, we act collaboratively to help families and children make healthy choices; we take our responsibilities to children seriously.”
A recent report from the House of Commons education committee found that prolonged screen time has become increasingly normal for young children and teenagers, with a 52% increase in children’s screen time. to the screen between 2020 and 2022.
According to the report, almost 25% of children and young people use their smartphones consistent with a behavioral addiction.
The collaboration has been enthusiastically received by Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of Childhood without smartphones (CFS).
“This move by south London headteachers is fantastically powerful and pioneering – never before have secondary schools come together to take collective action on this issue,” he said. “We know that the younger a child receives their first smartphone, the higher their incidence of mental illness in the future, so this has the potential to change the lives of a generation of children in south London.
“School leaders have the ability to immediately effect change in their schools and shape social norms in their communities,” he added.
Concern about smartphones and children has skyrocketed. There are currently SFC groups in the USA, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Portugal.
In the UK, there has been a rise in parents coming together to make “deals” not to give smartphones to their children until at least 14 years old. In Bristol board80 schools have launched SFC groups and more than 1,000 parents have signed pacts.
“We’re very excited about how this is multiplying organically among schools, principals and parents, it was clearly a conversation waiting to happen,” Greenwell said.