'Social media companies are failing to stop their sites being used to organise, commit and share child abuse,' writes the NSPCC, who also reported yesterday, just looking at Hampshire figures, that there has been an 83 percent increase in offences of sexual communication with a child. We can be in no doubt that this pattern is being repeated up and down the country to a lesser or greater extent.

It was galling to me yesterday to hear adults debating the ever-evolving online harms bill that needed 'to work for everyone,' with concerns about an invasion of privacy for some adults and their personal messages. If these are personal messages via apps like snapchat, the site NSPCC research has found to be the most used app to share child abuse images, (used in 43% of cases where a social media site was flagged), then I have little compassion for adults and their privacy. Protecting adult privacy over child welfare is frankly ridiculous and indefensible. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp (all owned by Meta) don't come off well either, being found to be used in 33% of child abuse crimes on social media.

Children do not need smart phones, especially at school. I urge you to have a listen to this short interview of a child in a French school (go to 35:23) that has banned phone use. (France banned them in classrooms 10 years ago). Teachers in the same school admit struggles to enforce the rule at times as parents advise them over the school gates to 'give them to their child' to aid discipline or calm them down, and children cling to them out of a mixture of dependence, self soothing and addiction. 'It is a very important item' to them the teacher says. Yes this is true. Adults have made it so.

These ‘important items’ come at a cost of thousands of pounds to buy and sustain and yet we also listened yesterday to schools being criticised for continuing to ask that parents buy uniform. An interesting juxtaposition of issues being talked about on the same day in the media, which begged the question of priorities. Uniform that has been proven to aid discipline, calm, neutralise bullying over clothes and enhance school identity and morale is being brought under the spotlight for being an average cost of £300 per child, and yet a lot of these children have devices worth hundreds of pounds hanging out of their blazer pockets. What exactly are we doing?

Phones in lockers to make that call home or let parents or friends know locations have become imperative, especially on a background of staff shortage in the public services and the violence against women and girls that alarmingly continues to rise. BUT, do they have to be as 'smart' as they are? These expensive, robotic and potentially harmful devices are complicit in so many sexual crimes committed in schools. For anyone who hasn't read it, see the Offsted report, a review of sexual abuse in schools.

Or have a look at William Hague's recent article.

What more do we need to see? The change may be coming, but it is too limp and too slow. Entire childhoods are being blighted whilst we pick at clauses in this online harms bill.

'Ban' is a strong word to use when talking about phone use in schools? Another thing debated in the media yesterday. Really? There is increasing evidence on their overuse and misuse triggering the same brain responses as alcohol and drugs. There is only one word if you ask me. 'They need them for lessons.' That is also a great big adult cop out which can isolate the few children who genuinely cannot afford a phone or who aren't allowed by parents to bring a phone into school. School ipads with some government funding would surely cost less than the immense fire-fighting that is being paid for in so, so many ways up and down the country for the harm these devices are causing or are complicit in.

There is a reason why this debate is all over the news this week. It is a good question we ask! Please get phones out of schools.

Thank you for signing and sharing.

Dr Becky Foljambe