Campaigners calling for smartphone-free schools are putting their case to councillors next week.
More than 2,400 people signed a petition asking Brighton and Hove City Council to implement a smartphone-free policy in its schools.
The petition by Natalie Dean on the Change.org website is scheduled for debate at the full council meeting on Thursday (19 December).
It cites St Albans which, along with some London schools, has a policy that any phone used during the school day is confiscated, being returned after up to a week or when collected by a parent.
Locally, Cardinal Newman Catholic School operates a Yonder pouch scheme. Pupils’ phones are sealed with a magnetic lock during the school day and released when pupils leave school.
The petition said: “We understand that the council cannot mandate parental choices but it can play a pivotal role in raising awareness and providing evidence-based guidance.
“We propose that the council encourages schools to adopt guidelines recommending that parents delay providing smartphones to their children until they are older and promote the use of basic mobile phones or smartwatches that allow parents to stay in contact with their children without exposing them to the risks associated with smartphones.
“We urge the council alongside this to potentially launch an educational campaign aimed at informing parents about the potential dangers of early smartphone usage.
“This campaign could include arranging workshops and collaborating with local schools to disseminate this vital information through a variety of channels.”
A deputation of eight parents, under the banner of the Smartphone-Free Childhood campaign, are due to address the council.
They want the council to support and promote their campaign and send their material to local schools.
They believe that smartphones are designed for adults, are addictive and are shown by research to have contributed to increasing rates of poor mental health.
Smartphone-Free Childhood said that children with smartphones are exposed to explicit content, including hardcore pornography and violent videos.
The group said: “It is not just parents who want change. Children too want change. Sixty-seven per cent of children believe smartphones are harmful, 50 per cent of teens say they feel addicted and 20 per cent have felt life is not worth living due to social media.
“Policy across our city varies enormously and, sadly, some schools and teachers are unintentionally adding to the problem by using smartphones within lessons.”
The campaign group is already working with Cottesmore St Mary’s Catholic Primary School where it is holding an event at 6.30pm on Thursday 23 January.
The full council meeting is due to start at 4.30pm on Thursday 19 December at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
Always easier to ban something rather than have a sensible policy about it. These people would have banned landlines and the radio 100 years ago. Adults are much more likely to get radicalised by their phones, maybe they should get banned too
Every child knows they can’t bring something like a radio into my classroom, although few have a radio any more, given what’s available on a phone. Most of them have no idea what landlines are these days, so no need to ban them. Besides a child couldn’t take a landline into a classroom in any meaningful way. You’re really just reinforcing the point. Children should not be distracted by phones in lessons. They are one of the biggest problems in terms of behaviour management in many schools. Fortunately for me, and the children I teach, I have a fierce classroom persona at the start of every term, and it only becomes a little less fierce if my children behave well and focus on the lessons. I still have to deal with a few over-entitled little darlings, especially on playground duty.
Of course this will not apply to academy schools.
You want to see phone addiction in action? Go to any concert and see how many people are recording the gig on their phones to watch later.
Just a massive waste of time and resources for schools. You will never ban phones for school children to have and you will never be able to govern any ban of phones at school. When will people learn phones are important now in our society for safety of the children and also for knowledge of our ever changing world. To say that children want this is a lie and there are only some parents that would back it but ideally phones are apart of all our lives.