Smartphones & Social Media
Mr Mark Case, Deputy Head of College
If there is one major concern that is shared by almost all Oxley parents, it is the impact – or potential impact – of smartphones and social media on their children.
This concern has grown markedly as more evidence has emerged over the past year. The Federal Government has now established a Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society, which is currently conducting an Inquiry into Social Media Impacts on Australian Society; the interim report will be published on 15 August 2024, and a final report in November this year. The Committee Chair, Ms Kate Thwaites MP, said: “‘Australians are concerned about the impact social media is having across many areas of our community. The committee will be hearing about how social media companies operate in Australia, the impact that has, and considering what changes we need to see’. This month, a collaboration between ReachOut, The Black Dog Institute and Beyond Blue has made a submission to the Inquiry; you can view their full report here.
Unfortunately, we cannot wait for the outcome of this or any other Inquiry for potential legislation to protect our children and young people, or for the social media companies to voluntarily implement such measures.
For many years we have seen the correlation between the use of smartphones and social media by young people and increased mental health issues including anxiety, depression and self harm. The evidence that is now emerging is compelling: the relationship is increasingly been shown to be causal, not merely correlative. Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” (2024) provides a comprehensive understanding of how modern technology has contributed to the rise of mental health issues in people born after 1995, and offers insights into potential solutions. Haidt provides extensive evidence, across a range of metrics and in multiple countries, about how and why, since 2010, this has taken place, including the transition from the play-based childhood to the phone-based childhood during the years 2010-2015. I strongly recommend this book to parents/carers.
At Oxley we are currently reviewing our mobile phone policy in the Senior School (“See It, Hear It, Lose it” in Years 7-10, and our more nuanced policy for Year 11 and 12 students, who are currently permitted to use them only discreetly, and only outside the classroom). The Head of Senior School, Tristan Bevan, has indicated in his bulletin to parents last week that our current approach will be tightened in Term 3, with a ‘two strike’ policy for students using their phones when they shouldn’t be. Parents/carers can help us by not contacting their children in Years 7-10 on their mobile phone during the school day.
For many, especially those in the Senior School, their child already has a smartphone; the challenge now is managing use of social media and screentime. The Oxley Cyber Safety Hub has a significant array or resources to help parents/carers with this, and indeed all manner of issues around technology use. In the coming weeks, Year 9 students will be conducting a film study of the documentary “The Social Dilemma” (available on Netflix) in Cornerstone, and discussing and writing about it in class. I urge you parents to watch it, too.
Other schools are moving towards a model of no smartphones to be permitted at all below a certain age. For example, from September this year Eton College in the UK is banning smartphones below the age of 15, and issuing students aged 13 and 14 with a Nokia ‘brick’ phone instead.
Whilst the decision of when to get a smartphone for a child is one that is rightly made by families and not the school, this does not mean the school cannot show leadership on this issue – especially in the absence of adequate government regulation of social media companies. Public debate is moving from how to prohibit mobile phones in schools, to whether students below the age of 16 should own a smartphone at all.
The decision of when a child gets a smartphone is often one that parents/carers make reluctantly – the driver to delay getting a smartphone for a child is, entirely understandably, often outweighed by the desire for their child not to be socially excluded; it is very difficult to resist the plea – “but everyone else in getting one!”. In reality this means that the early adopters unwittingly make the decision for the cohort.
However, this dynamic can change if parents/carers collaborate and agree, as a cohort, at what age/year that their children may have a smartphone. The Australian initiative Wait Mate is a great example of how this can be done; the website has some great resources for parents, too.
In light of the above, I will be running a presentation for parents/carers in the Junior School on Smartphones and Social Media on Tuesday 30 July at 5.30pm. I will present evidence and reasons for why we need to act, and propose a call to action for parents/carers. I hope you can be there – please register your attendance using the following link: https://www.trybooking.com/CTVJS
Yours sincerely
Mr Mark Case
Deputy Head of College