Victorian Department of Education urged to update the mobile phone ban in state schools

There are calls for an overhaul of the mobile phone ban in Victorian state schools to fix inconsistencies and protect students.

Savvy students are dodging mobile phone bans by covertly using new wearable wireless devices to bully each other, watch porn and chat to strangers at school, cyber safety experts warn.

Rules allowing students to have wireless earphones, texting apps, fitbits and smart watches on them during the day enable students to access the internet and exchange social media messages in class and in the schoolyard. These small cordless devices mean students can easily conceal wireless earphones and watches to avoid detection by teachers.

Bullying cases have increased by 69 per cent while 44 per cent of students have had a negative experience online, data from the eSafety Commissioner shows. The most common was being contacted by a stranger online.

The Department of Education is being called on to update its statewide mobile phone ban to include wearable devices and step up surveillance of students on campus.

Sophie Bulmer, 17, uses her phone to help her study. Picture: Jason Edwards

The ban, which has applied to all state schools from the start of 2020, requires students to have their mobile phones switched off and securely stored during school hours, including lunchtimes. It excludes wearable and personal devices such as headphones and iPads, although students are supposed to have them turned off. Some schools have included these items in their broader ban.

The mobile phone policy, which has been widely adopted in many private schools, has some exceptions including for use in class for learning and for children with a disability.

Cyber safety expert Susan McLean, who speaks to around 250,000 students a year from 300 schools, said the policy needed to include items such as smart watches, wireless ear buds and fitbits.

She said schools had an inconsistent approach to enforcing the statewide ban of mobile phones, with some taking a hard line and others a very lax one. Ms McLean recently dealt with a NSW case where a student was groomed by a paedophile in her school library.

There are concerns about the rate of cyber bullying at schools.

“Kids are watching porn or other inappropriate material or using their mobile phones to chat to strangers while at school,” she warned.

“Schools and parents can’t rely on kids to make good choices – the policy must be enforced. Kids know how to get around the bans and access inappropriate content,” she said.

“Schools have a duty of care for what students are doing while on campus,” Ms McLean said. “It will take someone to sue a school for real action to be taken.”

Senior psychology lecturer at Deakin University Dr Sharon Horwood said having access to mobile phones and other personal devices in the classroom would make it more difficult for students at risk of disengaging from class to focus.

“Primary school kids have very poor self regulation, and even teenagers. Their brains are still growing, so they have a much harder time inhibiting that drive to pick up their smartphone and have a look at it.”

Southern Cross University Education Professor Pasi Sahlberg said there was no causal link to increased mobile phone use and academic performance, but the Victorian government needed to shift away from a blanket ban on personal devices.

“It’s not necessarily the best way to help young people use their devices and gadgets in the way that they should be,” he said.

“Teachers and parents see that the technology is distracting and disturbing young people’s lives and, but also help them with learning and well being as well. It’s about how we learn to live safe, responsible and healthy lives with these devices because they are not going to go away.”

The Department of Education is being called on to update the mobile phone ban in schools.

The most recent Growing up Digital in Australia report found that 84% of teachers think digital technologies are becoming a growing distraction in schools.

Seventy eight per cent reported a drop in students’ ability to focus on school work.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said there had been a rise in reports of cyber-bullying since students had been back in the classroom.

She said parents have been more lax at home around screens and social media since the Covid pandemic began.

“As online exposure goes up, so do the risks that something will go wrong online, and we saw a 69% increase in the number of cyber-bullying reports to our cyber-bullying scheme in 2021 when compared to 2019 before the pandemic,” she said.

There were 638 cyber-bullying complaints to the commission in 2019 but 1079 in 2021.

Such complaints are very labour intensive and involve extensive work with children, parents, schools and sometimes the police.

The Education Department’s policy states that students can be suspended for “serious misuse” of a phone, such as cyber-bullying.

The Herald Sun attempted to obtain the number of mobile phone breaches reported in Victorian public schools since the ban came into effect under Freedom of Information laws.

But the Department of Education does not keep central records of how many students had flouted the ban.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said: “Our mobile phone policy supports students to focus on learning and has been successful in boosting student engagement and helping to improve social interactions.”

“We want all our classrooms and school environments to be conducive to learning and the mobile phone ban supports this by helping to remove distractions.”

It comes as mobile phone use during school hours has remained a hotly contested issue in other states.

Primary school students in NSW are forbidden from using personal devices during school hours, including at recess and lunchtime without an exemption from the principal.

A 2020 policy review maintained the requirement for high school principals to set their own rules.

In Western Australia, all students are banned from using mobile phones at school, with devices confiscated from primary aged pupils until the end of the day while smart watches have to be on aeroplane mode to stop messages appearing.

International studies, including in the United Kingdom, have found mobile phone bans benefit lower performing students twice as much as high-achieving students.

Coburg mother Suzanne Bulmer said her 17-year-old daughter Sophie should be allowed to carry her devices at school because she listens to music to help her concentrate.

“She doesn’t abuse these devices, she just uses them to help her study,” Ms Bulmer said.

Ms Bulmer said she understood there was potential for students to misuse their wireless devices at school, but they were also helpful for students.

“I think that by banning these devices, we’re not teaching our kids how to appropriately

use them for good purposes.

“They can utilise these devices to achieve their own study goals and use them as a tool

to avoid getting distracted by others.”