Irish Examiner view: Leading by example

Most Irish parents would support a ban on mobile phones in schools. Yet many of our children still tied to their phones

As our children prepare to go back to school, we can be sure that chargers and battery packs will be among the 'essentials' packed in many of their schoolbags. Picture: iStock

While our children prepare their kitbags and satchels for the return to school, we can be sure that chargers and battery packs will be among the essentials, the most important of which, for many, is the ubiquitous mobile phone.

This is despite a survey suggesting that 88% of Irish parents would support a ban on mobile phones in primary schools, while 77% are in favour of similar restrictions at secondary level. 

And though this implies a high level of support for something that is sensible and would enhance the developmental interests of students, we can be forgiven a moment of scepticism when we observe what happens all around us.

Children notice the self-indulgent and entitled manner in which nearly all adults have allowed personal telecoms to penetrate, and often dictate, their lives. If we permit interruption and distraction to meetings, to family time, to meals, to cinemas and theatre, even to funerals, weddings, and church services, then small wonder that young people might think that they should also have a slice of that action. 

If we allow, in our collective madness, our relationships to depend for sustenance and instant reinforcement on a personal handset, then don’t expect the behaviour of the next generations to change any time soon, or indeed ever.

The annual back to school survey published by the Irish League of Credit Unions reported that 10.7 is the average age at which primary school children get their first phones, increasing to 13.5 years for teenagers. Some 72% of mothers and fathers say they “actively” monitor their child’s mobile phone activity. This is a scarcely believable figure. The level to which such scrutiny actually takes place is also open to challenge, as anyone who has attempted to question their child on their social media activity, much less view their communications, can attest.

Online safety expert Alex Cooney, of CyberSafeKids, put it this way: “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.”

The question we must ask of ourselves is: “Who are the grown-ups here? And what example do we set?”

Author Zadie Smith, who uses a “dumbphone”, railed this weekend at the first question that everyone asks: “What about when you get lost? Like getting lost is the worst thing that can ever happen to a human being ... so let me get this right: In exchange for the maps you will give away your democracy, the mental health of your children, your own mental health — for a map? I will get you a map! We are free! If you want to be free, you can free yourself.”

And so we can.

Another terrible road tragedy 

Another weekend, and another terrible road tragedy involving the loss of four young lives. Zoey Coffey, Nicole Murphy, and siblings Grace and Luke McSweeney were on their way out to celebrate exam results when their car crashed in heavy rainfall on Mountain Road in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.

There were moving scenes in Clonmel on Sunday evening as people took part in a vigil for the four young people who lost their lives in a car crash on Friday. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Zoey, Nicole, and Grace were all 18 and had just received their Leaving Cert grades. Luke was 24. And, as always, it is school principals, first responders, and priests, the people we always depend upon when such awful incidents occur, who have to give verbal shape and form, and find the right words, to describe searing pain and inexplicable loss to assist the process of community grieving.

These loyal representatives of the better side of our collective humanity never let us down. “Today, our school and our town are covered in a cloud of sadness and devastation,” said Presentation Secondary School principal Michael O’Loughlin, sentiments echoed by Loreto school principal Anne McGrath. He said that the teenagers “were about to embark on a new chapter in their lives”, a point made also by the Taoiseach. “The whole nation mourns them,” said Leo Varadkar.

Given the horror of the crash, it is inexplicable that anyone would use a drone to fly over the accident site as emergency personnel were engaged in their work and then distribute images of the aftermath on social media and messaging apps.

Superintendent Kieran Ruane, supported by Fr Michael Toomey, said it was disrespectful to families of the deceased as well as to first responders. But they could have used much stronger phrases to describe a darker aspect to our society.

Finding a Voice

Australia has been energetic in modern times in attempting to recognise the role and influence of its First Nation population considering it is less than 60 years since there was legal acknowledgement of the country’s responsibilities to them, or even include them in census headcounts.

That progress will be put to the first of a number of electoral tests this week when prime minister Anthony Albanese is expected to announce the date of a referendum to establish an ‘Indigenous Voice’ to parliament.

The centre-left Labor government wants to legally enshrine an indigenous body to advise Canberra on policies and laws affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, who comprise 4% of the continent’s population of 26m. It must be approved by a majority of the nation’s voters, and four out of the country’s six states, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, and Queensland.

Initial enthusiasm for the proposition has waned in recent weeks after polling at an approval rate of 63% some 12 months ago. Recent results show Yes behind on 48%. Critics on the right say no group in the country will enjoy a comparable
constitutionally privileged position, while aboriginal leaders regard legislative change as a symbolic concession of their claims to sovereignty. Unlike other former dominions, no treaty has ever been agreed with the indigenous peoples.

The temperature has been raised and Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, says she is distressed about the racism in the debate which she describes as “the worst public discourse” since the 1990s.

In a climate where the word “reparations” is increasingly heard in discussions with the descendants of colonisers, this argument will be closely watched in other countries.