Whole-society approach needed for children's online safety

New data from the Children’s Commissioner’s School and College Survey has shown that 90 per cent of secondary schools and 99.8 per cent of primary schools have policies in place to stop the use of mobile phones during the school day. This is the largest-ever survey of schools and colleges, with the 19,000 responses representing nearly 90 per cent of all schools in England.

21 per cent of primary schools completely ban pupils from bringing phones to school, compared with 3.5 per cent of secondary schools, and secondary schools were more likely to allow some phone use, like at break times or lunch.

Despite this, online safety is still the second most cited concern for school leaders, with mental health services at number one.

These findings highlight the need for a whole-society approach to strengthening safety online to keep children safe outside of school. This is especially important when other findings from the survey include 25 per cent of children in England aged eight to 15 spent two to three hours a day on the internet using a computer, smartphone, tablet, or gaming console.

Mobile phone policies help to reduce distractions, improve behaviour, and maintain children’s focus, but the report emphasises the need to provisions to be in place outside the classroom to protect children’s safety. This aligns with what children have told the Children’s Commissioner over the past few years: that they want stronger action on online safety, and that current government measures have little to no impact on their daily online experiences.

Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s commissioner, said: “Action to take children’s safety online is long overdue — and the pace of regulation has been far outstripped by the speed at which technology has developed. The Online Safety Act remains the strongest mechanism we have to protect children from online harms, but its implementation must be ambitious and far-reaching.

“It must deliver on its full potential — holding technology companies to account and making the digital world a safer place for children by design.”