Sarah Beeny has called on the government to ban smart devices in schools, saying they are “a distraction”.
The 52-year-old presenter appeared on Good Morning Britain alongside headteacher Ana Vilhete, who said it was important for children to learn to be tech-savvy.
Sarah, who revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in 2022 and, after gruelling chemotherapy treatment and a double mastectomy, was given the all-clear by doctors last April, looked fresh and radiant.
This comes after the presenter criticised her son’s £33,000-a-year private school for making iPads a requirement for learning and for its over-reliance on technology.
Government guidance in England states that schools should “ban the use of mobile phones” but they can choose the approach that suits them best.
Presenter Sarah Beeny called on the government to ban smart devices in schools, claiming they are “a distraction” on Good Morning Britain on Monday.
Sarah said: “My concern is that technology is not appropriate for education because it is so distracting. Social media is really toxic for younger generations, for developing minds, who don’t learn social skills.
“Confidence is gained by talking to someone face to face instead of retreating into a world that is not a humanized world. Everyone knows that it is not good for the development of the mind and that social skills are not learned.
Meanwhile, Ana disagreed, saying schools can “use” the devices and learn to be “tech-savvy.”
Ana said: ‘As long as schools use the devices responsibly, there is no problem. There are restrictions, there are websites and apps that children can use.
‘Kids only use devices for a couple of hours a day, they don’t use them between 9 and 3 in the afternoon.’
Sarah added: “I’m not against computers in schools, that would be ridiculous. But if you have devices enabled for personal use in a school, whether it’s a smartphone or a tablet, if you own them, you take them home and you take with you something that is clearly addictive.”
Ana argued that it is important for children to learn how to use technology, because “we live in a digital world.”
She added: “My final question is: what about children who cannot afford to have devices at home? How can they have digital skills?”
School governor Ana Vilhete said it is important for children to learn to be “tech-savvy” in a digital world
Ana added: ‘My final point is how can children who can’t afford to have devices at home have any digital skills?’
People took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to leave their own opinions on the controversial topic.
People took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to leave their own opinions on the controversial topic.
One person said: ‘Parents need to take responsibility. They gave their kids phones, not the school. So step up and be parents!’
Another said: “They literally have a world of knowledge at their fingertips. It would be more pragmatic to incorporate this into their classes.”
Someone else said: “Pros and cons for both sides. There is a safety aspect for parents and children to communicate when needed. Schools could have a tray to put phones on the teacher’s desk as they enter the classroom. Teachers carry their phones as well…”
A fourth wrote: “Children under 16 should only be allowed to use simple mobile devices that allow them to make calls and send text messages. There is no need for a younger person to have a sophisticated mobile phone that allows them and others to access things they don’t understand. Social media is the cause of so many problems.”
This comes after Sarah criticised her son’s £33,000-a-year private school for making iPads a requirement for learning and for its over-reliance on technology.
The 52-year-old presenter has described reliance on technology as “very, very toxic” and has expressed the idea that the introduction of iPads in school has made it “impossible” for the presenter to limit screen time at home.
Sarah has four children – Billy, 20, Charlie, 18, Rafferty, 14, and Laurie, 12 – with her husband, the artist Graham Swift. All attend or attended before graduating from Millfield School in Somerset.
The property expert said: ‘That’s basically like asking someone to go on a diet and then filling the entire fridge with cream doughnuts and saying, ‘Could you walk around a bit and find the carrot at the bottom?’ and then expecting them to use their self-control.
“And when they don’t exercise self-control, you say, ‘Well, what’s wrong with you? ‘ I don’t think you can pass the problem on to the parents.
‘People have said to me before, ‘Why don’t you use parental controls?’ and I’ve said, ‘Well, I’m at work, I’m really busy, and they can avoid it anyway.’
Sarah has four children – Billy, 20, Charlie, 18, Rafferty, 14, and Laurie, 12 – with her husband, artist Graham Swift, and they have all attended Millfield School in Somerset.
She said: “People have said to me before ‘Why don’t you use parental controls?’ and I say, ‘Well, I’m at work, I’m very busy and they can avoid it anyway’” (pictured with sons Charlie and Billy and husband Graham).
Sarah’s distaste for the use of technology in schools continues when she goes on to say that the devices stunt children’s “brain development” and limit their social skills.
The Property Ladder presenter has called on schools to impose stricter restrictions on devices in schools and said no child should be able to “look for a game” on school-owned technology.
He added: “Pupils shouldn’t be able to do anything because it’s like a school textbook. You don’t have a school textbook and then put Beano on the end of it, do you?”
The mother of four’s frustration stems from the concept of children in schools having access to things they shouldn’t on school-owned devices, arguing that this makes children less productive as they are more easily distracted – so long as they are given a tablet to do their math homework but then get distracted and go and use social media like Snapchat and completely forget about the homework they were assigned.
He went on to propose the idea that schools should not issue devices until they are responsible for the content on them, and children should not be allowed to download social media.
Schools can impose restrictions on devices such as black-wall software that blocks access to certain types of content, but children try to circumvent them and more and more children are successfully bypassing these software systems.
Beeny empathizes with all parents, not just herself, saying that the incorporation of technology into student learning affects all families as it makes it much more difficult to monitor the amount of time their children spend on technology each day.
In England, it is currently up to head teachers to decide on policies regarding mobile phones and whether they should be banned. The guidance, which is not mandatory, instructs head teachers on how to ban the use of phones not only during lessons, but also during breaks and lunch periods.
It offers four different policies that schools can adopt to enforce it, including banning phones on school premises, turning in phones upon arrival at school, and keeping phones locked in a secure location at school.
A fourth option allows pupils to keep their phones, as long as they never use, see or hear them. According to Ofcom, almost all children (97 per cent) now have mobile phones by the age of 12.