AS I SEE IT
BY MARIANNE HERON
With an election looming and Taoiseach Simon Harris’ new broom sweeping the country, promising to take action in areas likely to catch votes, has moved into top gear. This doesn’t necessarily make for the best decisions though.
Take Education Minister Norma Foley’s plan to ban smartphones in schools and Health Minister Stephen Donnelley’s threat to have access to social media banned for under 16s. Smartphones have been a major irritant for parents and teachers alike given the classroom distraction and the threats phones pose. But is a knee-jerk reaction really the answer? Prohibition, which drives the problem underground and doesn’t resolve any of the issues involved, generally doesn’t work.
It seems that the sheer speed of change brought by IT has caught us off guard. In less than half a generation we have moved from a situation where innocent games like ‘I Spy’ were played on long car journeys to one where there is complete silence in the back seat and where busy young thumbs can summon friends, entertainment and access to the whole world – for good or evil – on their devices.
We readily accept that access to adult films, to drink, to driving and to voting are denied to the underage. Smart phones, however, have got in under the wire as an amazing social tool but one which exposes children to potential harm in a whole range of ways from bullying to hard porn, from grooming to misinformation that they may be too young and ill-prepared to handle.
Is a ban the answer? Several countries like France and China have already banned smartphones for under 15s. Here the rules are that pupils can bring phones to school but they should be kept switched off in lockers or bags and parents must send messages to their kids via the school secretary.
The battle lines are divided on a ban. It’s down to parents and educators to prepare the next generation for lives where they can reach their full potential. Why cut teens off from using phones which have become an essential part of life today, goes one argument. Smartphones can be a useful educational tool and learning to use one responsibly and how to deal with the negative aspects of phone usage should be part of growing up.
Others, including the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), have backed Foley and Donnelly in the plan to prohibit smart phone usage for under 16s.” Our young people are exposed to a toxic mix of both extraordinarily harmful content and social media platforms that use features such as infinite scroll to promote more user activity promoting a vicious circle of use,” says the IMO.
Imposing a ban, though, leaves the lines blurred about where the responsibility lies for the toxic elements available on phones. It’s not the phones themselves but their content that is the problem. Taking away their smart phones won’t stop children bullying in school – they will simply revert to old fashioned ways of inflicting torment unless bullying is tackled effectively.
It is not cell phones that are responsible for hardcore porn and false information. Why is hard porn allowed on the internet at all? It should be banned totally. Social media companies need to be brought to heel and legislation like the EU’s Digital Services Act which came into effect last summer to limit social harms with fines for illicit content and new policies for hate speech, strictly enforced. This is further strengthened by our own Digital Services Act (DSA) 2024.
Minister Donnelly’s sabre-rattling promises to reset the conversation with social media companies telling them that their product is harming children and the first thing that is going to be done is remove access for children. Donnelly has also set up a new online health task force to collect much-needed evidence on harms caused by social media.
It strikes me that several things are missing from the debate. One is the need to involve adolescents who are more likely to abide by the rules if they have some input in decisions. Another is the missed opportunity to use supervised smart phones creatively in class and the point that, as parents buy the phones for their teens, they have a responsibility to facilitate their children to use them wisely.
Meantime, I predict a sharp rise in the sale of burner phones to teens.
