Over 80% of parents support school mobile phone ban

Parents of primary school children were more likely to favour a ban on mobile phones in schools compared to secondary school parents. File Picture.

More than 80% of parents want phones to be banned in both primary and secondary schools, according to a new survey.

The annual Back to School survey by the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) also has parents reporting that 10.7 is the average age at which primary school children get their first phones. Secondary school parents said the average age was 13.5 years.

The findings come as UNESCO, the UN's education, science, and culture agency, recommended that only technology that supports learning is merited in schools, saying that mobile devices can cause distraction, risk pupil privacy, and lead to cyberbullying.

Parents of primary school children were more likely to favour a ban on mobile phones in schools (88%) compared to 77% of secondary school parents.

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The survey found that 30% of parents were concerned at over-use and time spent on phones; 23% about access to inappropriate content; and 19% about bullying.

Over 60% of parents said their child owns a mobile phone. 

'Hold off as long as you can'

Online safety expert and CEO of CyberSafeKids, Alex Cooney, has this advice for parents: “Hold off as long as you can, on smartphones specifically, because of all the devices, it is the most portable, making the internet incredibly accessible.

"When you give a child a phone, you give them access to the world, but you’re also giving the world access to your child, especially if there are no parental controls on it, and if you’re not keeping an eye on what they’re doing.

There are kids sitting up in their bedrooms late at night, on those devices, no one is checking in, and no one is keeping an eye, and that’s the real concern."

“At the end of the day, we are talking about an internet that was designed for adults, not for children — yet children are on it, and they are on it in big numbers and from a young age. 

"And until the online world is made safer for them, we have to do everything in our power to protect them from some of the darker sides of what they can find online.”

For primary parents, the top reasons for their child not owning a phone include concerns about being too young (89%), safety (36%), and privacy (22%). 

Secondary parents expressed worries about their child's privacy (60%) and safety (51%), with 38% concerned about excessive screen time.

Some 72% of school parents say they actively monitor their child's mobile phone and activity.