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Friday 14th February 2025 – Anonymous 9
To: Scrutiny Communications <Scrutiny@gov.je> Subject: Smartphones and children
Good evening,
This is the voice of a very concerned parent of two primary school children, one of whom is going to Les Quennevais in September. It saddens me that we are one of only a handful of parents who have resisted the pressure to purchase a smart phone for our child.
I ultimately want to see a ban on all children in Jersey’s schools, (both primary and secondary), having access to smart phones during school hours. Brick phones would be acceptable if required for medical reasons etc. Ultimately I would wish that Jersey secondary schools can be phone free zones.
There is a serious lack of legislation around social media and smart phones. Ultimately, I see no future place for social media with under 16s and I would want a complete and illegal ban in the same way as smoking.
Better options need to be available for ‘brick’ phones which will help protect and allow our kids to be kids and stop stealing their childhoods. Additional components like GPS tracking for parental piece of mind would be the kind of advancement I would like to see.
Finally, I am distraught, but want to make you aware that a few children from my eldest child’s peer group (age 10/11) were recently exposed to videos of explicit and sexual nature on another minors smart phone whilst at a youth club. Whilst I can refrain from buying my children their own smart phone, I can only encourage them to not look at others when given opportunity but am also well aware of the documented addictive traits of smart phones.
Whilst I am not against technology and appreciate its benefits. Much more needs to be done to safeguard our whole Island community but particularly our future generations from the dangerous and harmful side of the tech world. If you have the power to make a change then I really want you to.
I am not willing to stand down and let my children be part of the experiment! Thank you for your time.
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