Queensland schools’ mobile phone ban need support of parents to work – Madonna King

QUEENSLAND’S new Anti-Bullying Task Force chair says she is behind a ban of mobile phones in the state’s schools in a bid to prevent online bullying, but admits it is parents who are the main reason it hasn’t happened already.

QUEENSLAND Anti-Bullying Task Force chair and journalist Madonna King said parents, students and teachers need to be on board for mobile phone banning to work well in schools.

Ms King was appointed yesterday by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as part of a 14-member task force to stop bullying in Queensland schools – the panel of experts include school principals, university representatives, union delegates and aboriginal leaders

The journalist and author appeared as a guest on ABC Breakfast Radio today and stated the positives and negatives of banning mobile phones, as Brisbane schools like Hillbrook Anglican School have done this year.

Newly appointed chairwoman of an Anti-Bullying Task Force Madonna King speaks as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk looks on during a press conference in Brisbane. Picture: AAP Image/Jono Searle

“I think that it is an issue for two reasons, I know some schools who don’t have a ban and are now trying to implement it and they say the biggest hazard to doing that is parents,” she told the radio.

“I spoke to one of those parents who stopped me in the street yesterday and he said to me ‘I don’t want a ban in my school because my daughter was bullied last year and my wife likes to ring her at lunchtime to make sure she’s okay.’

“I can see really good reasons for it, and really good reasons against it, what I can say for this to work is it has got to be supported by parents and schools and students.”

Ms King said while interviewing teenage girls for research for her book Being 14, she found that girls often don’t speak up about bullying because they are worried their parents might confiscate their phones.

As for finding a solution about mobile phone banning in schools, Ms King said the answer needs to be agreed upon by everyone.

“It may not be the experts around the table, they can talk to us about the effect of it and the legal consequence of it and all of those things, but maybe there is an idea that someone has that is the thing that could really make a difference,” she said.

Originally published as Queensland schools’ mobile phone ban need support of parents to work – Madonna King