Cyber bullying may prompt ban on student phones in Queensland classrooms

A CRACKDOWN on smartphones in schools will be discussed when Australia’s top cyber cop meets the Premier this week in a bid to rein in cyber trolls.

A CRACKDOWN on smartphones in schools will be discussed when Australia’s top cyber cop meets the Premier this week in a bid to stifle online bullying.

Julie Inman Grant, the Federal Government’s eSafety Commissioner, will brief Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the state Cabinet tomorrow on the epidemic of cyber bullying.

Ms Inman Grant said that schools should “have discretion to prevent usage of digital devices during school hours when lessons are being taught’’.

Students at Hillbrook school in Enoggera must keep phones switched off in their bags or lockers. Picture: Jamie Hanson

“Any device that can be used to communicate and share digital content has the potential to be misused,’’ she told The Sunday Mail.

“The platforms and software used (for) cyber-bullying are not exclusive to smartphones and an outright ban of all digital devices from schools may be impractical, since we are teaching children on digital devices to prepare them for the workplace of the future.’’

Ms Palaszczuk said Ms Inman Grant had wide­ranging powers to help parents and kids tackle cyber bullying.

“We need to ensure people know about it,’’ the Premier said. “We are finalising the membership of a state-based Anti-Bullying Task Force and I wanted Cabinet to hear directly from the eSafety Commissioner.’’

Top Queensland schools – including Hillbrook, an Anglican school in Enoggera – are banning smartphone use this year.

Curbing mobile phone use in schools is a bid to rein in online bullying.

Hillbrook principal Geoff Newton said students must now keep phones switched off in their bags or lockers.

Last year, the school let students keep phones in their pockets, for use in lunch breaks.

“We found that the students weren’t really talking or interacting,’’ Mr Newton said.

“They weren’t chatting with each other or playing games, and developing social skills – students had a constant tether to their mobiles and were texting each other.’’

He said vibrating phones had distracted students in class, even when left on silent.

Kelvin Grove State College beefed up its policy last week, banning students in its junior and middle schools from using mobiles on school grounds.

Students from years 10 to 12 must have their phones switched off in class, and the policy warns that “serious ­action will be taken against any students who take photographs, or record other individuals without consent’’.

All Saints School on the Gold Coast makes students hand phones in to the office or class teacher, although older students can keep them switched off in their lockers.

Mobile phones taken into class are confiscated and the students are given detention.

Queensland Law Society spokesman Bill Potts said the Queensland Education Department needed a “significant wake-up call’’ over its refusal to impose a blanket ban on smartphone use during school hours.

The Sunday Mail last month launched the #standup social media campaign to call out bullying.

Originally published as Cyber bullying may prompt ban on student phones in Queensland classrooms