Kids for Now Delay Smartphones

I am a parent of two school age children in Scotland and have been campaigning my kids' local school, appealing to them to consider banning the use of smartphones during the school day.

I contacted the Scottish Government to ask if they could provide guidance to headteachers to give them the authority to impose bans.

I was shocked when the response came back that the Scottish Government cannot and will not do this and it is up to individual schools to decide what to do.

I believe that individual headteachers are finding it difficult to consider mobile phone bans because the devices are becoming entrenched in their schools' infrastructures, being used for research, online educational games, connections with school systems for homework etc.

However, there is growing concern around childrens' attainment in Scotland and I believe the use of smartphones in schools could be partly responsible.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-66312128?fbclid=IwAR3G8e5Nht257XYPmHZoG_c1U-2YQ-jPkyN3fzpYm7wkHpazvxCw_KcJiy0

There have been numerous studies done on the effects of smartphone use on children's brains and yet, in Scotland, there doesn't seem to be the push from the government to discourage it's use by children and in schools.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth needs to listen to the research that has been conducted globally on the detrimental effects of smartphone use in children and actively discourage its use. 

She can do this by supporting educational establishments in their decisions to ban the use of smartphones. She can help parents with the decision of whether to buy their child a smartphone by actively discouraging it in the form of campaigns.

If she doesn't help, our childrens' attainment will fall and their mental health will suffer. 

We need our government to step up and take the lead on this critical issue for the sake of our children. Please sign.