The ACT is likely to bring in a ban on mobile phones in high schools next year as worries mount over their detrimental effect on academic and social life of teenagers.
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Parents are calling for a consistent policy across all public schools as the ACT remains the last jurisdiction in the country to bring in a ban or restrictions on mobile phone use in government schools.
Education Minister Yvette Berry said the ACT was currently reviewing policies related to the use of mobile phones and other communication and electronic devices by students in public schools.
"In the coming weeks, the Education Directorate will be issuing a discussion paper and engaging with stakeholders and the community to ensure the new policies being developed meet community needs and expectations," Ms Berry said.
"The new policies developed as a result of this work will take effect in 2024.
"I would encourage school communities to engage in the consultation when it opens in the weeks ahead."
Until now, the directorate has left the regulation of mobile phone use up to individual schools.
Harrison School started using lockable pouches purchased from Yondr in term 2 this year for the year 7 to 10 cohorts.
Each morning students put their phone in the pouch and use large magnets on the school gate to lock it. They can open the pouch when they leave school in the afternoon. The system cost about $12,000 from the school's budget.
If a student breaks the rules, their phone is confiscated and returned at the end of the day. In the second instance a parent or carer is contacted and the phone is return to them at the end of the day.
On the third time a family meeting is arranged. Students have to pay $20 for broken pouches.
Harrison School P&C President Olivia Wenholz said parents were concerned mobile phones were causing distractions in the classroom and were being used as a bullying tool to take videos of students in the playground and toilets.
A survey of the school community last year found 99.5 per cent of respondents believed there were negative consequences with phone use at school while 81.6 per cent did not see phone use as necessary to support student learning and engagement.
In 2022, 38 per cent of negative incidents from years 7 to 10 at Harrison School related to mobile phones.
![Harrison School year 8 student, Hannah Vidal, 14, with a lockable phone pouch students use to secure their phones during the day. Picture by Elesa Kurtz Harrison School year 8 student, Hannah Vidal, 14, with a lockable phone pouch students use to secure their phones during the day. Picture by Elesa Kurtz](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/33pRA5ArzT57tWtt8VHHenS/527ad10c-6a4b-4287-ae3e-015519801e96.jpg/r0_218_4256_2611_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Ms Wenholz said since the ban came into effect, conflicts between students and teachers were down and the amount of rubbish left in the playground had decreased.
"The playground is completely different and there's a lot less distraction," she said.
Instead of having their heads down at lunchtime, students looked up and the playground became a more fun place to be. Some students have stopped bringing their phones to school every day.
"Different teachers had different approaches," Ms Wenholz said.
"Inconsistency is really hard to manage, that's why it had to be across the board for the whole school."
Canberra parent Sally Mills started an online petition in May to rid school playgrounds of mobile phones and end the inconsistency between ACT schools.
When her friends' children began high school, she became worried about the impact of phones on students' wellbeing and social skills.
"They would say, 'Oh, how was your first day? How was it? Did you make any new friends'?" she said.
"And the replies would be, 'It was actually pretty hard. Everyone was on their phones at lunch'. And to me that was really heartbreaking to hear because high school is such a formative time."
Ms Mills' primary school-aged children don't yet have phones but the family is considering starting with a basic phone when they enter high school rather than a smartphone.
![Sally Mills, pictured with son Eli, 11, started an online petition to get rid of mobile phones from playgrounds in ACT schools. Picture by Elesa Kurtz Sally Mills, pictured with son Eli, 11, started an online petition to get rid of mobile phones from playgrounds in ACT schools. Picture by Elesa Kurtz](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/33NBucraZ2MPk3YB6LUe8H/1f2d86f1-6ef1-4c55-aae6-185e34d3b407.jpg/r0_111_4167_2685_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I'm by no means against technology and it has amazing applications, but for developing minds, particularly adolescents, I just personally felt that we need to take a harm-minimisation approach here," she said.
A ban on phones in school began in South Australia at the start of term 3. NSW is set to follow in term 4 and Queensland will start a ban from next year. All other jurisdictions already have a phone ban in schools except the ACT.
Monash University professor Neil Selwyn said there shouldn't be any statewide bans on mobile phones in schools, pointing to a ban that was lifted in New York City schools in 2015.
"Mobile phones definitely have a place in schools, have a place in education, have a place in young people's lives," Prof Selwyn said.
"So it's kind of up to schools to work out how to manage the presence of mobile phones because I don't think there's something that we can ban away or wish away."
New York City had a ban on mobile phones in schools for nine years but lifted it because it was only being enforced in low-income schools which had metal detectors.
Meanwhile, many other countries have introduced restrictions on phone use in schools, including the Netherlands, Finland, Bangladesh, France and China.
UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring report into technology in education found almost one in four countries in the world had taken steps to ban phone use in schools.
"I think there is a consensus that it is a distraction," the report's director Manos Antoninis said.
"Let's not forget the detrimental impact that the use of the phone has not in the classroom but also in the [schoolyard] where it's being used increasingly for cyberbullying, which is growing."
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Dr Antoninis said system-wide phone bans could help ease the tension in the classroom and helped teachers save energy for their core task - teaching.
The ACT's opposition education spokesperson Jeremy Hanson said the Liberals supported a ban on mobile phones in schools.
"Unless they're being used for educational purposes, they need to be away," Mr Hanson said.
ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations president Alison Elliott said some parents supported a total ban while others preferred some access for high school students.
"There really is a range of points of view, but what is clear is that parents want the same rules across the system," she said.
"You don't want kids to hear from a soccer mate that they are allowed to do different things at their high school."
Education ministers from across all states and territories discussed the issue of phones in schools in their meeting in early July.
"Ministers made a national commitment to ban, restrict or manage the use of mobile phones and other personal electronic devices by students for personal use in government schools," the communique said.
Ms Mills said she hoped the new round of consultation would focus on how to implement restrictions on phones, rather than whether it should be done.
"Why wouldn't we just give our teenagers a chance to be free of the distraction of phones for at least six or seven hours of the day?" she said.
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