Jenny Gilruth 'ignorant of reality' of harm smartphones cause in schools

Members of Smartphone Free Childhood met with Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth at Holyrood yesterday (Thursday) to demand a Scotland-wide government-mandated end to smartphone use among pupils.

The group wants phones banned from use on school campuses, transport and at extracurricular clubs and said pupils are being confronted by violent and pornographic content and head teachers lack support needed to bar devices.

READ MORE: Sarwar pledges to stop pupils from being able to access porn on council-issued iPads

Sam Rice, regional leader of Smartphone Free Childhood (Scotland), said: “What was quite clear in that meeting was that the reality of what is happening in schools and at local authority level is not well understood.

“We obviously worked very hard to fill that knowledge gap and to counter some of those misunderstandings, and to make it clear that the current system is quite simply failing children every day.

“The government position, Ms Gilruth made it clear, is that they're unable to go any further without legislation.

“However, others in the room disagreed with that position. There is more that can be done.”

Currently, dictating smart phone use is in the gift of local authorities with the Scottish government taking a hands-off approach.

Edinburgh City Council is currently consulting on whether to ban smartphones in its primary schools.

This week, Orkney Islands Council became the latest local authority to allow individual headteachers to enact bans on phones in their schools.

READ MORE: Pupils are able to access pornography on council-issued iPads

Campaigners at the meeting said Ms Gilruth seemed to be unaware of a recent situation in East Dunbartonshire where P5 pupils accessed pornography on other children’s phones.

They said she was also apparently unaware of a scandal in Scottish Borders and Glasgow council schools - first revealed by The Scotsman - where pupils were able to access porn on school-issued iPads.

Following the meeting in Holyrood on Thursday, Miles Briggs, Scottish Conservative education spokesman, said he would investigate whether cross-party work could get underway to draft legislation banning smartphones.

This, he said, could then be ready for a new government in May to progress.

Mr Briggs said: “Jenny Gilruth is hiding behind the 1980 Education Act, which says that each local authority is responsible for policy around education.

“She says she's given councils the opportunity to enact a ban if they want, but they need a clear signal that this is national policy.”

READ MORE: Are iPads in schools really ‘child abuse on a national scale’?

In England, education secretary Bridget Phillipson, has written to all head teachers saying phones should be barred in schools “no ifs, no buts”.

Mr Rice said: “Parents are afraid to send their child to school because of such clear and present risks.

“We hear constantly about cyberbullying; children being photographed and filmed without consent - and videos posted online.

“We know about children being shown explicit and violent and videos by other children.

“These incidents can be life-changingly harmful and can require serious intervention and counselling.

“We still don’t take online harms seriously enough.

“Dangerous online trends and challenges have also led to children being injured and killed.”

Cabinet Secretary for Education Jenny Gilruth said: “I’m grateful to the Smartphone Free Childhood group for the constructive meeting today. It’s very important that we listen to the concerns raised by parents and hear their experiences of how education is delivered at their children’s schools.

“Our national guidance on mobile phones makes clear that we support full bans of phones in schools, and I trust that headteachers can take the appropriate steps for their pupils. We are already seeing a number of councils introducing full bans in line with our guidance.

“The UK Government is responsible for the regulation of the internet and we have been clear in our calls for greater controls to reduce online harms to children.”