Press Release: 26/6/2019
The Victorian Government's intended ban on student mobile phones is not the silver bullet that many would believe, according to Australia's leading online safety group, Family Zone Cyber Safety Ltd.
Tim Levy, Managing Director of Family Zone, said "Our research shows that phone bans are often resisted and easily ignored by parents and students. And we know that many teachers, schools and experts worry about robbing children of important learning opportunities."
"How can schools placate parents' desires to contact their children? How can schools deal with adult students able to buy their own phone plans? How will schools detect phones in school bags and use of WiFi hot spotting? Who is responsible if mobile phones get stolen from lockers, lost at reception or broken by school staff? What about students using smart watches at schools? The list of challenges for schools is endless," added Mr Levy.
Experts are also concerned about the prospect of mobile phone bans simply masking cyber safety challenges and pushing responsibility onto busy and unprepared parents. In many homes, the child's primary internet connected device is the device required to be purchased by the school causing resentment by parents of cyber issues seemingly being thrust on them by the school.
Mr Levy said "It is naïve to think that banning mobile phones will be the panacea to issues relating to personal device use at school. The answer is to provide parents, teachers and schools with the policy choices and tools they need to manage the risks and take advantage of the opportunities of mobility."
Family Zone is used in 35 schools across Victoria, offering them a holistic and balanced approach to the challenges of technology at school and at home. The company's approach is to install technology on personal and learning devices and let school policy reign during school time.
He added "Family Zone is committed to privacy. This is built into our DNA and we offer many free and paid options for parents to deal with cyber safety at home. In our work with schools we provide extensive education programs for staff, parents and students and when combined with measured out-of-sight policies school communities get the best possible outcomes".
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Mr Levy concluded "Over the many years we've been doing this we've never seen blanket bans work. Family Zone empowers parents and schools to build a cyber safe culture, by providing them with online safety, insights and advice about the many potential risks associated with seemingly innocuous apps and websites and how to grow good digital citizens".
Family Zone now leads the global market with a fully integrated at school, at home and mobile cyber safety offering, available through www.familyzone.com.
