Calling all parents: Let’s opt out of the teenage smartphone revolution

As a teacher, I have seen the classroom transform in the past decade. Before computers were ever-present, teaching was like a dance between the student and teacher where unexpected (and sometimes delightful!) moments took place. An exchange. A relationship.

After teaching in a number of different schools these past five years or so, I have been struck by how homogeneous they have become. Students spend most of their day on a laptop. Lessons look the same. If a teacher is absent, then the work is “posted” for them to complete. They needn’t come and see you at lunchtime because they can always email.

The latest trend appears to be buying your child a mobile phone as soon as they begin high school. The year 7 students where I teach now agree that peer pressure plays a part and that everyone communicates via Snapchat. I think parents are confused and also feel pressured to keep up. I think we need to give them permission to opt out.

The statistics on the mental health of young people this past decade are alarming and have been highlighted in books and by programs such as US docudrama The Social Dilemma on Netflix. In the program, New York University professor Jonathan Haidt claimed there has been a “gigantic increase” in depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide among pre-teens and teenagers in the US who have been on social media since primary school.

Mental health problems have risen along with the widespread use of social media on smartphones, a fact that is highlighted in the program, though the extent to which the two phenomena are connected is disputed by researchers. Australian data also points to an alarming rise in anxiety, depression and substance abuse disorders among young people, particularly women and girls, in recent years.

Parents are fearful of their children embarking on a major rite of passage without a phone in their pocket. Ironically, as we remain hyper-vigilant about their physical safety, we forget there’s a whole online world that is largely unregulated. Children can’t “un-see” something. A family friend’s son told me a tale of kids in his school playground encouraging their friends to “Come and watch this!” It turns out the group were all gathered around a phone viewing a video of a person being dismembered by a train. Fortunately, our friend’s son had the good sense not to participate. Not even in my middle age is this something I would like to see, or feel like I’d easily recover from.

I would argue that all children need to be taught how to have the confidence to walk away from the situation described above. Of course, the technology is pervasive and your child not owning a phone or any device themselves doesn’t mean they won’t have exposure to a screen.

Parents have said to me that while individual students may behave badly, they trust their children with technology. I think this is too simplistic. Do I tell my brother, a recovering alcoholic, that his addiction is his fault and a weakness or character flaw? Or do we acknowledge people are a product of their society and that sometimes their experiences tell us when something is wrong or out of balance?