THE Education Minister has warned that the fight against online harms facing children cannot be solved by schools alone, as he ruled out a blanket ban on mobile phones in schools and called for a joined-up, Islandwide strategy that brings together parents, government departments and young people.
Deputy Rob Ward recently made the comments during a Scrutiny hearing during which he was questioned by the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel about how schools were protecting students from harmful online content.
His comments come after Jersey’s Public Health unit called for a ban on mobile phones in schools for students up to the age of 15 to address the growing health risks linked to screen time.
While the Education Minister pledged to address the risks of excessive screen time and online harms facing children, he stopped short of supporting a blanket mobile phone ban in schools, as recommended by Public Health.
He said that up to 96% of schools already restricted mobile phone use, with many of these policies developed with students and parents to change behaviour and culture over time – and that a meaningful solution required more than a “top-down” approach.
“Tomorrow, I could say I’m going to announce a ban, and it would be a lovely headline, but meaningless,” he said. “The reason that’s meaningless is because it does not solve the problem.”
Instead, he called for a co-ordinated Islandwide approach and said: “We can’t do everything in schools. Parents can’t do everything on their own. Young people can’t do everything on their own.”
The hearing was part of a broader review to examine government efforts and the role of legislation, education, family and culture in keeping young people safe online.
As part of a submission to the Scrutiny’s panel’s review, Public Health warned that “a co-ordinated, whole-society approach” was needed to protect young people from the mounting physical, mental and developmental harms associated with excessive tech use.
The department recommended that government should “develop a policy across schools to prevent or minimise use during the school day, especially for younger pupils”, suggesting that France’s national ban on mobile phones in schools for students up to age of 15 “offers a potential model Jersey could adopt or adapt”.
Public Health’s reports highlighted findings from the most recent Children and Young People’s Survey, which showed that 39% of students had spent more than five hours on screens the previous day.
Only 22% of youngsters met recommended daily physical activity guidelines – falling to just 8% among older girls – and just under half of respondents had slept for eight hours the night before they answered the survey.
The department also pointed to “potential links between screen use and emotional wellbeing in Jersey” and called for the launch of “targeted campaigns that promote balanced screen use, digital wellbeing, sleep hygiene and outdoor play”.
While Deputy Ward welcomed Public Health’s focus on the issue and described a community awareness campaign as “key” and a “useful thing to do”, he said any response must recognise what schools could and could not control.
He added: “With our online systems [within schools] that we can control, we have good filters and systems where we can intervene… It’s the areas we can’t control outside school [that are of more concern], and this is where an education piece with parents working together with schools would be really important.”
The minister went on to explain that within schools, internet use was monitored by filtering software that blocked harmful content. The difficulties, he said, lay in controlling what material children could access using mobile data when they were not connected to the school Wi-Fi network, as well as in protecting them when they were not on school grounds. “We cannot control access through mobile data. We simply cannot switch that off,” he said. “I would be extremely concerned about young people accessing online content in an unfiltered, unprotected way when they leave the school premises. It’s very difficult for schools to manage that.”
Teaching digital safety in an “age-appropriate” way was an important part of the response, he said,with lessons starting as early as Year 3 that were tailored to students with special educational needs who may be more vulnerable to online risks.
“Education is really important to protecting students… It’s really important that young people have access to an online world that is safe, so that they know what it looks like, they know how to behave, and they can have their behaviour in that online world modelled for them at school,” the minister added.
The Scrutiny hearing also heard that an updated online safety policy was being drafted, which the department says will better define what constitutes an online safety incident and outline clearer procedures for schools.
Education officials also confirmed that all schools conducted annual safeguarding audits, which included a focus on online harm and digital safety. These audits are used as a self-evaluation tool to ensure policies are up to date and effective.
Deputy Ward said schools deserved credit for the way they had worked with young people to limit mobile phone use in recent years.
“They have tried to turn back the tide of the mobile phone use, and in school after school, by working with their staff and their students, to come up with a policy and change the culture,” he said.
In response to a question from the Scrutiny panel about what support was available to parents, Deputy Ward encouraged families to engage directly with schools and the Education Department.
“Go and speak to the school. Go and speak to teachers. Come and talk to us,” he said. “As soon as we’re involved with parents, that relationship develops, and it becomes easier for everybody involved.”
Panel chair Deputy Catherine Curtis welcomed the renewed focus on online safety but said more work was needed.
“When we held our one-off hearing last year on online safety, we were concerned that there did not appear to be much in the way of joined-up thinking across departments on this issue. That was one of the driving forces for launching this review.
“We were pleased to hear that there appears to be a major refocus on this and that a Ministerial Oversight Group meets regularly to discuss online harms for children.
“It is clear that there is still a lot of work which needs to be done to tackle this ever-evolving issue and we appreciate that the minister acknowledged that this is not something that can be achieved with a single policy or piece of legislation and will need constant attention.
“We look forward to hearing from the other ministers with responsibility for online safety over the next week.”
