By Andy Chatterton
Italy has passed a regulation that allows headteachers to outlaw the use and possession of mobile phones in schools. Any pupils found breaking these sanctions can face a range of punishments, from the confiscation of their phone to exclusion from school and final examinations.
Now, while I’m the first to complain about long train journeys sitting next to someone who can’t seem to go five minutes with having a loud conversation on their phone or the disturbing/bizarre trend of people listening to music on their mobiles with no headphones (am I getting old?), the thought that someone’s entire future could be at risk because they bring a mobile phone into school seems to me to be a step too far.
There’s been a lot of stories in the press about school kids using phones for inappropriate activity - bullying, distribution of porn, ‘happy slapping’, cheating in examinations - and of course each of these incidents strengthens a call for an outright ban. However, in an age where walking to and from school can sadly be a risky business for school kids, mobile phones are also increasingly a safety net for parents.
What would be ideal is for phone companies to offer some kind of technology that allows parents to control the time of day the phone can be used, the content accessed, the numbers calling and being called from their child’s phone…
Funny thing is, the technology already exists and is being used in North America. But why is it not available in Europe, one might ask? Sceptics might argue that children provide far too big an income for mobile companies to start cutting the time that they can use the phone - but surely a company offering this as a package to the whole family will be creating income and loyalty from a whole group of people, rather than just teenagers?
And let’s face it, any outright ban on mobiles in schools is frankly not going to work. This technology savvy generation is going to have no trouble finding ways of hiding their use of mobile phones from teachers who already have too much to worry about - kids can text whole messages with the phone in their pocket, for goodness sake!
Surely the solution that keeps everyone happy is a flexible parental monitoring service that allows limits to be placed on phone use during set times of the day and night. This would reassure parents that they could still contact their child in an emergency, while allowing pupils to use their phones during breaks and free time, causing less uproar than an outright ban and avoiding the furore that would no doubt occur if pupils were excluded from school just for taking a phone call.
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