Latest news with #WillOrrEwing
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Fathers plan legal action to get smartphones banned in England's schools
Two fathers plan to take legal action against the government in an attempt to get smartphones banned in schools in England. Will Orr-Ewing and Pete Montgomery wrote to the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, on Friday warning that they would seek a judicial review. They argue that current guidance, which allows headteachers to decide how smartphones are used, is unlawful and unsafe for children. The Department for Education now has 14 days to officially respond to the letter, after which point the claimants can issue judicial review proceedings. The DfE said schools already had the power to ban phones and it was bringing in 'better protections' from harmful content through the Online Safety Act. A national survey ordered by Rachel de Souza, the children's commissioner for England, published in April revealed that 90% of all schools in England have banned mobile phone use by pupils. The survey found that 79% of secondary schools allowed students to keep their phones while banning their use or display, while 8% required phones to be handed in, and 3% stopped pupils from bringing them to school altogether. The two fathers, who have brought their claim under the name Generation Alpha, argue that smartphones are still being used dangerously and the safest approach for children would be a complete ban on smartphones in schools. Orr-Ewing said there was evidence that devices were being used to access harmful 'very violent or sexual' content or for cyberbullying. 'We know that when children use smartphones they usually don't do it in a safe way,' he said. 'Parents have told us about boys being filmed naked in the PE changing rooms and then shared across the school.' Girls were 'being manipulated by predators on messaging platforms during lessons and in school toilets' and 'tiny children' were being shown 'graphic pornography' on the school bus by other children, he added. The fathers said a ban on smartphones was a 'no-brainer', and argued that children should only have 'brick phones' to communicate with parents if needed. Sign up to Headlines UK Get the day's headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Last week government guidance from the DfE on keeping children safe at school acknowledged that some children might use smartphones to bully or sexually harass other children, share indecent images and access and share pornography. Schools should 'carefully consider how this is managed', it stated. Montgomery said there was evidence that schools were still not taking the necessary steps to safeguard children. The pair made freedom of information requests to schools in England about safeguarding incidents related to smartphones and social media; one school had passed 55 such incidents to social services in the last academic year, 17 of which were referred to the police. 'A statutory ban would be a huge relief for headteachers and parents alike,' he said. The DfE said: 'Schools already have the power to ban phones, and we support headteachers to take the necessary steps to prevent disruption, backed by our clear guidance on how to restrict their use. We know there are wider issues with children's online experiences, which is why we are also bringing in better protections from harmful content through the Online Safety Act.'
BBC News
12-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Dads call for ban on smartphones in schools across England
Two fathers have announced they are seeking a judicial review of government guidance as part of a campaign to get smartphone use banned in Orr-Ewing from Oxford and Pete Montgomery, who lives near Lancaster, have warned Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, in a letter on Friday, that they plan to take legal pair have said the current guidance, which allows headteachers to decide how smartphones are used, is unlawful and unsafe for Department of Education said schools already had the power to ban phones and it was bringing in "better protections" from harmful content through the Online Safety Act. The fathers have brought their claim under the name Generation Alpha believe the safest approach for children would be a complete ban on smartphones in Orr-Ewing said: "We know that when children use smartphones they usually don't do it in a safe said they were using the devices to access harmful "very violent or sexual" content or "they use it for cyberbullying".He added: "Parents have told us about boys being filmed naked in the PE changing rooms and then shared across the school."Meanwhile, he said girls were "being manipulated by predators on messaging platforms during lessons and in school toilets" and "tiny children" were being shown "graphic pornography" on the school bus by other children. The fathers said children should only have "brick phones" to communicate with parents if needed, but a ban on smartphones was a "no-brainer".The Department for Education (DfE) released its latest guidance around keeping children safe at school on acknowledged that some children might engage in bullying and sexual harassment, "share indecent images" and "view and share pornography and other harmful content" and said schools should "carefully consider how this is managed". Mr Montgomery said: "We made Freedom of Information requests to schools in England about safeguarding incidents related to smartphones and social media."One school passed 55 such incidents to social services in the last academic year, 17 of which were referred to the police."He added: "A statutory ban would be a huge relief for headteachers and parents alike."In a statement, the DfE said: "Schools already have the power to ban phones, and we support headteachers to take the necessary steps to prevent disruption, backed by our clear guidance on how to restrict their use..."We know there are wider issues with children's online experiences, which is why we are also bringing in better protections from harmful content through the Online Safety Act."It has 14 days to officially respond to the letter, after which point the claimants can issue judicial review proceedings. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
BBC News
29-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Thousands in Oxfordshire pledge to keep children smartphone-free
The parents of nearly 4,000 Oxfordshire children have pledged to deny them a smartphone until at least the end of Year is part of the "parent pact" launched by campaign group Smartphone Free group warns that mobiles "can cause a whole host of problems, from triggering anxiety and eating disorders, to opening the door to cyberbullying or sexual predators".It comes alongside calls to ban mobiles in all Oxford schools, though studies are mixed on whether that would make a difference to grades and behaviour. The idea behind the pledge is to have enough parents withholding phones that their children are not left out as only one in their classes without a far, students at 270 schools in the county have been signed up, with Europa School UK in Culham garnering 204 pledges. The group's spin-off campaign Smartphone Free Schools said that a ban on devices during learning hours would "boost learning, protect mental health, improve behaviour, create safer spaces [and] protect childhood."Will Orr-Ewing, who runs the Oxfordshire branch of the campaign and works in education, said that having mobiles in lessons was extremely distracting."The average child in the UK receives 237 notifications per day. If you scale that to a class of 30 kids, that's a phone pinging every few seconds," he said."It's now known that smartphones are heavily implicated in the catastrophic decline in young people's mental health over the past decade."If young people can access inappropriate content and apps during the school day then, unintentionally though it may be, schools are neglecting the welfare of their students."Meanwhile, schools across Oxfordshire are introducing policies to restrict phone at Aureus School in Didcot have to stow their phones in a lockable pouch every day before they enter the school. Reflecting on the change it has made, head teacher Kirsty Rogers said: "It's incredible. The lack of disruption to lessons now is huge."The school's previous policy was to confiscate phones when they were spotted in lessons, but Mrs Rogers said teachers were wary of doing this "through fear of what was going to happen". "Students are absolutely addicted to these phones, and so you don't know how they're going to react to you when you say you need to confiscate them," she said. The lockable pouches were unpopular when they were first introduced, but many students have now said they have got used to them."People used to get sad and angry because of something on their phone," one student said. "But now their presence of mind is in school and they can study better.""When I'm studying, I feel more comfortable leaving it out of my reach and focusing on my education more," another added. Studies are divided on whether prohibiting phones in schools helps studying, by the Policy Exchange found that children at schools with an effective ban achieved GCSE results one to two grades higher than those at other a University of Birmingham study found such bans were not linked to better grades, mental wellbeing, sleep or classroom though, they noted that spending longer on smartphones and social media in general was linked with worse results for all of those conclusion of lead author Dr Victoria Goodyear was "those bans in isolation are not enough to tackle the negative impacts"."We need to do more than just ban phones in schools," she said. 'Everyone is on side' Currently, there is no legislation enforcing a phones in school policy. It is down to individual head teachers what they for Oxford City councillor Jo Sandelson, that is not has put forward a motion to the council calling for it to support an outright ban on smartphones in all Oxford schools for the council has no powers to enforce such a ban, she said "key messages coming out from the city would really show everyone is on side"."Everyone is saying the same thing. These children are better off without the distraction of smartphones at schools," she said. "What Eric Smit, the ex-boss of Google, says is why would we run such a large, uncontrolled experiment on the most important people in the world? Which is the next generation."In March, the government said it believed head teachers already had the power to ban phones in schools, with its official guidance saying "schools should develop a mobile phone policy that prohibits the use of mobile phones" during lesson time. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
