St Albans is bidding to become the first city in Britain that is smartphone-free for children under the age of 14.
Teachers in the Hertfordshire city have called for parents of children and adolescents to delay buying the electronic devices for them.
It comes amid fears over the impact smartphones have on children’s mental health and development, with particular concern over the fact that some children as young as seven now have them.
As well as the impact on health and wellbeing, recent reports have suggested that students who don’t have mobile phones in class get higher grades, sparking calls for them to be banned at school.
School heads in St Albans have called for parents to resist pressure from their children to buy the devices, even though many of places of education in the city already have a version of the no-phone policy in place.
St Albans is bidding to become the first city in Britain to be smartphone-free for children under the age of 14. Pictured: A view of St Albans Clocktower
Headteachers in the city have urged parents to delay buying their children smartphones until they are in year 9. Pictured: An image of a child wearing school uniform distracted by a mobile phone
In a letter sent to parents the St Albans Primary School Consortium urged parents to wait until at least Year 9 before buying a smartphone for their children.
‘We encourage all parents to delay giving children a smartphone until they reach the age of 14, opting instead for a text/call phone alternative if necessary,’ it said.
‘As head teachers we have committed to promoting our own schools as smartphone-free. We believe we can all work together across St Albans and join the growing movement across the country to change the ‘normal’ age that children are given smartphones.’
The consortium’s letter, which was signed by 20 of St Albans’ 24 primary school headteachers, said it was supporting the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign which has gained traction in recent months.
Justine Elbourne-Cload, executive head of Cunningham Hill Schools and chair of the consortium, said that there are ‘lots of issues’ of children joining WhatsApp groups that are then bombarding them with inappropriate material.
She told The Times: ‘There was a WhatsApp group that started in schools and then became a wider WhatsApp group and there was pornography. Somebody had joined from TikTok and was sending all sorts of dodgy images.’
The school group said that the connectivity of these devices means that there is little chance for children to break away from their peers, opening them up to the dual threats of addiction and bullying.
Ms Elbourne-Cload said she hopes that the movement will work to the extent that ‘it would be a shock to see a child under the age of 11… with a smartphone’.
She said: ‘It is far easier if it is the general norm that no children or very few children have smartphones. If the norm is they will walk around with old Nokia bricks, that’s what everyone will have and that will be fine. Because it always was fine. We’re just trying to roll back that age.’
She added that parents had been ‘overwhelmingly positive’ about the idea and ‘they would love the fact that it was taken out of their hands’.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, pictured in Westminster on May 16, has urged schools to crackdown on smartphone use by children
There have been concerns raised about the impact such a policy could have on secondary school students who use their smartphones to access homework and have to take buses that only allow tickets to be used via an app.
The campaign against smartphones in schools has gathered pace in recent months, with many schools putting in place no-mobile policies in the classroom.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan unveiled new guidance earlier this year that she said could ‘change the norms’ of children using mobiles at school as part of a crackdown on the devices.
It set out four options for ‘bans’, including insisting devices are left at home, teachers collecting them every morning, or having to keep them out of sight in bags.
Heads were also urged to include devices as items that can be searched for under behaviour policies.
Ms Keegan said she wanted to give teachers the tools to ‘take action to help improve behaviour and to allow them to do what they do best – teach’.
In a round of interviews, Ms Keegan told GB News: ‘Many of the ones who have a ban today will say you can’t take your phone out your bag, and if you take your phone out of your bag, then you’ll get the phone confiscated and you’ll get detention.
‘Sometimes that is effective. What we’re trying to do is change the norm in our schools, that phones are not acceptable in our schools. Some other countries have already done this, quite a few countries have already done this.’
She added: ‘There’s been some calls recently for social media to be banned for younger people, for smartphones to be banned for younger people. This is a step that I can take, which is to set the social norm that phones are banned in schools.
‘People will have a conversation, between parents and children as well, to say, ‘look, if your school says it’s no good for you in the day, then obviously it’s right to limit it’, though. That’s something that I hope will just set new norms really.’
The benefits of having ‘effective bans’ are stark according to one think-tank which claimed that students achieve higher grades when smartphones are forbidden in class.
Parents and teachers have raised concerns about the impact of smartphones on children’s wellbeing and mental health. Pictured: A stock image of a girl using a mobile phone
A report by Policy Exchange found that there was a ‘clear correlation’ between schools with an effective phone ban and academic performance.
From this, the think-tank recommend that headteachers ‘implement effective bans on mobile phones’, which would see the devices ‘handed in or stored in lockers’ for the duration of the school day.
Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey, has also been campaigning to restrict phone use among teenagers.
Her daughter, Brianna, 16, was murdered by two teenagers from her school, who plotted her death over vile messages exchanged on WhatsApp and Snapchat.
Scarlett Jenkinson, who was sentenced to a minimum term of 22 years imprisonment for Brianna’s murder, had downloaded a special browser to watch real-life torture and murder on the dark web.
Ms Ghey, 37, has campaigned for mobiles phones for those under 16 without access to social media – an idea backed by the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza.
She had a video meeting with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan in February to discuss her campaigns.
Speaking about the meeting, Ms Ghey said: ‘Approaching the meeting as both a parent and the Prime Minister, Rishi listened to my thoughts around both mindfulness in schools and concerns over mobile phone safety for our children.
‘The Prime Minister showed his concerns and support for many of the points raised, making a real commitment in supporting parents and taking suggestions on board around the dangers and issues faced by our young people.
‘It was an encouraging start and I hope to continue to work with Rishi, Michelle and other leaders across Government to make the world a safer, more empathetic and resilient place.’