Foley: Parents will be 'supported' not to buy primary school children mobiles

Minister for Education Norma Foley said that the memo would be around providing supports to both parents and schools to urge them not to provide smartphones to younger children. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The Government is encouraging parents to not buy smartphones for their children while they are still at primary school.

A memo, due to be brought to Cabinet on Tuesday by Education Minister Norma Foley, will ask parents to take a “collective decision” not to buy smartphones for children.

Speaking at the Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis, Ms Foley said that any decision would first have to be taken by individual boards of management at schools, but that she believed most don’t support the use of smartphones.

“To be quite honest, I think the vast, vast majority of our schools, particularly at primary level, do not support the use of smartphones within the school context,” Ms Foley said.

But I think the real issue is what happens after school and given that we are in education our focus will be on educating parents, supporting parents, to inform them in the first instance as to why it would be a better decision for their young child, particularly at primary school age, not to utilise the smartphone.

“We’re all very conscious that within the smartphone children can have access to content that no parent would want them to see, whether it’s violent content, whether its online bullying, all of that.” 

Ms Foley said that the memo would be around providing supports to both parents and schools to urge them not to provide smartphones to younger children.

She added that parents are “very alert” as to what happens when younger children have smartphones.

“I think they want the support of others as well because no parent wants to stand alone and say ‘I won’t purchase the phone’, because there is considerable peer pressure then.

“But there is enormous power in the collective so that will be the focus. Supporting parents to work collectively.”