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Summarised by Centrist
RNZ reports the government’s ban on cell phone use at school, introduced in Term Two this year, has not stopped some primary and intermediate students from getting online during school hours.
Children have used their smartphones and their email accounts to bypass school online security and access internet sites they shouldn’t. In response, at least one school is moving beyond the government policy by banning all smartphones and smartwatches on campus, shifting to a dumbphone-only approach.
One Auckland mother said she wanted “the basic phone; calls, texts, they can keep in touch with their friends, but also wanted something that looked modern so her children would not stand out socially. She said her children felt “like it’s social suicide and they’re getting left out” because “most of their friends all have smartphones”. She went to three shops and found “only one option out of hundreds of phones”, before ordering a lookalike device from Australia.
Digital safety educator Emma Planicka said there has been “a definite recent rise in dumbphones, “especially as there are such concerns around children’s mental health, access to social media and the key importance of keeping our children safe online.
