Teenagers are planning how to circumvent the coming mobile phone ban in NSW schools, saying that policy ignores how students use the technology to socialise and learn.
On Monday, NSW Premier Chris Minns said his government’s flagship policy of banning phones in public school classrooms, recesses and lunchtimes will start from term four this year. He said the ban would remove distractions from the classroom.
“I know a lot of adults who find it difficult to concentrate when a mobile phone is in front of them, so I don’t know why we expect children to have that kind of discipline in them,” he said.
NSW students, speaking pseudonymously to Crikey due to their age, said the ban would make school harder — or, in cases where a school had already banned devices, already had.
Year 12 student Noah said that his school banned phones when he was in Year 9 or Year 10 after students had filmed themselves fighting. The ban made it harder for shy students like him: “I used to have trouble interacting with people so after the phone got banned I used to spend the entirety of recess and lunch in the bathroom.”
Amelia, who is in Year 8, said students were using mobile phones for important tasks like contacting their parents, socialising or looking up educational resources: “Some girls need them to message their parents if they’ve forgotten their pads, etc. The teachers always say that we can ask them but not everyone is comfortable doing so.”
Amelia uses her phone for music during school hours to help her concentrate: “I’ll be so pissed if my phone gets taken away.”
Multiple teenagers, including Year 8 student Isla, told Crikey students are planning or are already sidestepping rules against phones.
“My friends are now buying [smart] watches so they can call, text, listen to music. Students have multiple ways to text, call people even if it doesn’t involve a phone,” Isla said.
Noah said: “Over time we’ve mastered sneaking them into class. Hiding it behind the pencil case, pretending to look for something in my bag, even using a calculator case to cover up.”
Students in states where governments have banned phones share on TikTok creative ways of accessing their phones in schools. In South Australia, the government has spent tens of thousands of dollars buying Yondr pouches for students, which purportedly lock phones. Videos show students “hacking” the pouches by smashing them against the ground to open them.
Year 10 student Jordan was frustrated about the “ridiculous ban” including lunchtimes and recess rather than just during class. He said the blanket ban could stop students from getting calls from family or friends in an emergency. (Other school bans typically allow students to access their phone if there is an emergency.)
“They could approach this by the students having to give the teachers their phone at the start of class … and receive it back after the lesson,” he proposed.
Noah acknowledged some good had come out of the ban, but said students at his school had initially protested against it.
Isla said the ban policy goes against the wishes of students: “It feels as if we have no say and whatever happens we don’t matter. School is supposed to feel like a safe and happy place but whenever I go into that environment, I feel anxious, depressed and angry.”
honestly, the needing to contact parents or vice versa is such a feeble excuse: in any emergency the parent can ring the school office and the student will be found, a student can ask the school to ring the parent and the school will do so if it’s at all important. We managed this quite successfully before each student had their own phone in the classroom.
I was a teacher before and after phones were introduced and when asked how it had affected students my answer was that it had no effect on the good students since they were interested enough to pay attention and wanted to learn, it had no effect on the worst students since they never did anything anyway but the middling students’ results declined because as soon as the lesson was a little difficult or less that wholly riveting they would switch their attention to the phone. And that’s to say nothing of the class time wasted asking students to put them away, confiscating etc. At senior levels with the pressure to get through the set course I gave up trying to manage phone access about halfway through each year, judging that we didn’t have the class time to waste on phone addicts. Those who claim teachers’ duties should include managing phone use always fail to disclose which areas of the curriculum should be sacrificed in order to do this and, of course, whether responsible phone use is actually teachable given that phones are engineered to be addictive.
‘…anxious, depressed and angry’ while at school? These are adjectives used to describe a bad addiction withdrawal.
This is light years from my memories of school (yes, ok, it was last century). Bullying still played out but its reach was restricted by having no internet, at least a victim was invulnerable outside of school hours whereas today it’s a 24 hour cycle of persecution. And to a much wider audience. Surely there must be a connection between the mobile phone obsession & the increasing youth suicide rate.
We have created this needy generation who are unaccustomed to being denied their fix. They will find the real world much tougher than they imagine.
It most certainly is an addiction. Even when students express they are trying not to use their phones, often they can’t help themselves. You can literally see their fingers twitching. They become angry and upset – often without intending to- at the thought that their access to a phone might be threatened. They are genuinely addicted; there are students who cannot function without their phone. It is absolutely a very real addiction for many, many students – more than you would think.
“I’ll be so pissed if my phone gets taken away.”
And there, in that very sentence, is the American influence.
Build a bridge and get over it Kiddy!
If accused as being aggressive the quote comes from one of my children.
‘…anxious, depressed and angry’ while at school? These are adjectives used to describe a bad addiction withdrawal.
This is light years from my memories of school (yes, ok, it was last century). Targeting selected students still played out but its reach was restricted by having no internet, at least a victim was invulnerable outside of school hours whereas today it’s a 24 hour cycle of persecution. And to a much wider audience. Surely there must be a connection between the mobile phone obsession & the increasing youth suicide rate.
We have created this needy generation who are unaccustomed to being denied their fix. They will find the real world much tougher than they imagine.
Every adult generation say these type of things about the adolescent generation. It’s a recurring theme.
No, it’s not just saying they are addicted. They demonstrate the psychological and physical markers of addiction. Many students are actually compulsively addicted to their phones and cannot function without them. I have seen students in abject rage and terror over the thought of being parted from their phone, and it’s not a deliberate, controlled reaction. They have a complete meltdown. They scream. Some become violent or leave. They take a long time to calm down and often feel sheepish afterward. It’s not an insult and it’s not exaggeration – many young people are literally addicted to their phones and their extreme reactions are part of that.
My son’s school has “Yondr” pouches to store phones in during school hours that have strong locking magnets like the anti-theft devices in clothing stores. Funnily enough, they’re all broken and no kid uses them. Best to link all the phones to an Mobile Device Management (MDM) tool with geospatial awareness that locks them down during school hours for schoolwork only.
Perhaps if a MDM tool as described above works it may encourage teens at school to – well – actually think. Which would greatly benefit their progress both at school and in later life.
GrapheneOS would stick the MDM into a sandbox, don’t imagine that kids aren’t already playing with it.