A former teacher is seeking to tackle children’s addictive phone use and make a ban on phones in schools statutory.
Josh MacAlister, Labour MP for Whitehaven and Workington - and a former teacher via Teach First - will introduce the Safer Phones Bill in Parliament this Wednesday, after he secured a spot in the Private Members’ Bill ballot.
Earlier this year, the Commons Education Select Committee had recommended that the next government should formally monitor the impact of a non-statutory ban on mobile phones in schools.
If the non-statutory guidance, announced by former education secretary Gillian Keegan in February, was found to be ineffective, a statutory ban should be introduced, the committee had said.
The bill, published this week, will aim to address concerns about the negative impact of technology on children by putting measures in place to make smartphones less addictive.
The bill is co-sponsored by a cross-party group of MPs, including the former Conservative education secretary Kit Malthouse.
It is also backed by Helen Hayes, chair of the Education Select Committee, as well as the current and former children’s commissioners and a coalition of parents’ campaign groups, teaching unions, school leaders and children’s charities.
MPs are expected to debate the issue in the new year, Mr MacAlister’s office said.
Pepe Di’lasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that school and college leaders “routinely pick up the pieces” for the damage caused by the instant access that pupils have to harmful content.
“We have reached a point where regulation is required over [the sale of smartphones] and the conduct of online platforms.”
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the teaching union NEU, said: “If social media companies are left to their own devices, the mental health crisis in young people will only get worse.”
The bill will also aim to raise the age of internet adulthood from 13 to 16, strengthen Ofcom’s powers to protect children from apps that are designed to be addictive, and commit the government to review further regulation, if needed, of the design, supply, marketing and use of mobile phones by children under 16.
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