The Government’s decision to invest €9m in Yondr pouches that lock smartphones has sparked controversy since the budget was announced last week.
It’s hard to know if the outrage from the opposition is genuine or simply politicking. The upcoming election seems to suggest the latter.
If so, it is terrible to play politics with the mental health of our children when not enough is being spent in this regard. Yes, €9m is a lot of money, but in the context of €12bn it is less than .01% of the educational spend. So, it’s not a lot in that context.
The problem with smartphones is not going away. They have no place in schools: Zero.
I hear why people are annoyed about the €9m, because there has been so much overspending by the Government, on things like the bike shed, the security hut, and, of course, the children’s hospital.
So this can look like another frivolous overspend when schools could just tell students to leave them in the locker.
But that hasn’t worked in 15 years, and chaos in schools ensued.
Any attempt to get smartphones out of schools should be welcome. They cause significant problems. They rob childhood. They disrupt learning, and impact mental health. There is a growing body of evidence on the damage these phones are doing to our children.
This has to stop, and we have to take action.
I’m not a politician, and I am not invested in this issue in any way, except that I sit with teenagers and families and work with schools every day.
I also sit on a National Advisory Council for The Parenting and Technology Institute, which delivers programmes to upskill parents on how to raise tech-savvy children.
My own daughter’s school uses them. I have interviewed students about them and listened to their feedback.
Generally, they tell me they’d rather have their phones, but when I mention the positives of not having them they nearly always explain that they enjoy chatting with their friends at lunch, and that they wouldn’t if they had their phones.
They can concentrate more on their schoolwork without the distraction of checking their phone all the time.
Teachers also report less disruption in the classroom, fewer toilet breaks, no phone-beeping and no notifications going off during lessons, and that students pay more attention to the material being taught.
Of course, teenagers can find ways around the pouches, by not locking them properly or by bringing another phone into school, but when none of their classmates have access to their phones there is no one to message, so that creates a phone-free culture.
Children need respite from the constant trafficking of their phones. This relentless activity — going in and going out of platforms — impacts their concentration.
I have spoken with so many teenagers who are preparing for their Leaving Certificate exams and they nearly all say the same thing: They wish they hadn’t got the phone so early in their lives, because they realise how it has impacted their ability to concentrate and to memorise.
Too much use of your smartphone can reduce cognitive ability, cause problems with social or emotional skills, distort sleeping patterns, and lead to mental inertia.
Infinite scrolling has had an adverse effect on us all, not to mention the impact it has on a young developing mind.
Brain regions associated with peer reinforcement, attention, and feedback are more sensitive during adolescence than at any other time in our lives.
Give teenagers a handheld device that is designed to keep them constantly checking by feeding them extreme material and they will be less happy during this period of maturation.
Again, I think we all know that our children are less happy than previous generations.
We are in the age of anxiety: Constant comparison, exclusion, cyber bullying, pornography, and filtered images of perfect lives are just some of the everyday experiences of children who use smartphones.
There are positives to smartphones: Connecting to their friends and having information at their fingertips. But school is a place for learning and being connected to others. The smartphone has no place in that environment.
Of course, €9m could be spent in a thousand ways. Camhs requires a root-and-branch restructuring, so that families at their most vulnerable receive the care they so desperately need.
The 49 recommendations outlined by the Mental Health Commission must be addressed. It is 17 months since they were published and yet nothing has happened. This is a matter of urgency.
But taking the phone out of our children’s hands, so they can learn and develop in a healthy way, is also a matter of urgency. Any attempt to achieve this should be applauded.
Next step; No smartphones in schools.
Final step: Those that produce these platforms are held accountable for the material they push to our children.
