7/17/2019 Mobiles at school an issue for principals and parents, not governments

NATIONAL QUEENSL AND EDUCATION

OPINION

Mobiles at school an issue for

principals and parents, not
governments

Madonna King
Columnist

June 26, 2019 — 9.01pm

June 26, 2019 — 9.01pm

Catherine Misson is no janey-come-lately to educating children.

She's run big schools like Melbourne Girls Grammar, led teaching and learning at
St Catherine's School in Sydney, been the head of English at Ravenswood School
for Girls, taught at North Sydney Boys High - and is about to head for Toronto to
lead a big girls' school.

But it was her frustration at the latest move to ban mobile phones from schools -
this time in Victoria - that moved her to tweet yesterday.

Catherine Misson
@CatherineMisson

Gov needs to release all the research underpinning this

extraordinary step & let the profession debate its merit:
robust digital citizenship programs educate, skill & empower
secondary students, was that strategy on the table too?
@tweetinjules theage.com.au/national/victo…
52 10:11 AM - Jun 26, 2019

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7/17/2019 Mobiles at school an issue for principals and parents, not governments

Mobile phones to be banned in state primary and secondar…

The Victorian government has adopted one of the world's tough…
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The Victorian government needs to release the research it held behind what she
termed "this extraordinary step" and let the profession debate its worth.

Wenona's Dr Briony Scott, one of the nation's most respected principals, followed
soon after. "I'm hoping and expecting there is more than one paper or one survey
being referenced…."

Their point is spot-on. Where's the research behind the plan that will ban mobile
phones from Victorian state primary and secondary schools from next year?

Victoria has banned mobile phones in schools. Now the government must explain why. ALAMY
STOCK PHOTO

Is it the survey that was dragged out showing 53 per cent of young Australians
had experienced cyber bulling?

Pick another survey and you'll get another result.

What age were those young Australians being bullied, that prompted government
action?

What device was being used to bully?

Did it occur during school class times, or at 9pm at night, or even the weekend?

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7/17/2019 Mobiles at school an issue for principals and parents, not governments

The issue of mobile phone bans at school is more complex than a simple ban by a
government looking for a headline. This is an issue for principals and parents, not
governments.

Should the ban be only during class times? Or is it best to ban their use from 8am
until 3pm?

If they are banned, is the school then able to ignore an issue of bullying that
happens between students outside school hours? What about if the bullying
occurs on an iPad, or a school computer? Does the research show we should ban
them too?

It is so easy to fall on one side, or the other, in this debate. But before you do,
consider two things.

Firstly, the flip side of this digital debate. How can our schools equip our children
with the skills the Government repeatedly says they need without ready access to
technology?

Cyberbullying doesn't just occur on mobile phones; our children have accounts
they can carry across devices - so banning one device, and not the others, might
prove problematic (as some schools have, indeed, found out).

Secondly, where is the role of parents here? The nature of cyber bullying means it
can be done anytime, anywhere. At school. Or at home. Or on the way home, on
the bus.

Shouldn't that mean the debate should be about responsible use of technology?

And shouldn't that start at home? One senior police officer, sick of parents
complaining about naked selfies of their children appearing online, puts the onus
strongly back on the complainers.

Who would hand the keys of the family car to their 17-year-old, without lessons
and practice, and tell them to take it for a spin, he asks?

No-one. So why do parents hand their child a smartphone, and then not see their
own role in teaching them to use it?

For the past two years I've travelled Australia speaking to dozens of schools, and
thousands of teen girls. Cyber-bullying is common. The nastiness, and threats,
and intimidation is almost unbelievable.

Some of those cases occurred during school hours. Some were at 3am, sent from a
room next to their parent's bedroom. Some were on the weekends.

Some were delivered by mobile phones. Some bullies used an iPad. Others used
their school-issued computers. Some even used another student's device.

But there were also dozens of cases where year nine girls used social media to
help each other study, to swap class lessons, and to send a kind note to a girl, who
seemed all alone.

Banning mobile phones might mean less bullying at school. Or it may mean the
bullying occurs at 3.01pm, or on another device, or that our students miss out on
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7/17/2019 Mobiles at school an issue for principals and parents, not governments

some of the blue-sky opportunities technology has to offer.

Could this be approached from another direction - where we teach our children
responsible use of their devices, so that they know you cannot be brutal on line,
and claim to be kind off-line?

Cyberbullying is a problem. That's a fact. But with any big problem - from a health
diagnosis to a major traffic snarl - the solution usually lies in the evidence. That's
what we teach.

And it's all our school leaders want. There shouldn't be a problem in providing it.

Madonna King chaired the Queensland taskforce into cyber-bullying.

Madonna King

Madonna King is a leading journalist and commentator who writes for the
Brisbane Times. She was an award-winning mornings presenter on 612 ABC
Brisbane and is a five-times author.

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