Keeping your Kids Mobile Safe at School

Children with mobile phones image from Shutterstock

It was only a couple of years ago I found myself saying to my husband, but surely JJ doesn't need a mobile now he is at Secondary school? We never had one, so why should he? But then my husband patiently reminded me that thirty years ago when we were at school there was a coin operated phone box on practically every street corner and we both lived within walking distance of our schools. Now our son travels for nearly an hour on the bus and in all that time doesn't pass even one phone box!

Oh yes things really have changed and I am convinced that for the most part the changes really are a good thing but of course there are challenges too and we'll explore some of those now.

It's against School Policy
This is a tough one as generally I always want to encourage our children to adhere to the school rules but actually I think school are being a bit short-sighted on this one. Without a mobile, how is my son to tell me if he misses the bus or if it breaks down, when there are no longer any call boxes and no public transport to where we live?

Practicality dictates for us that JJ (age 14) takes his phone to school with him and during the school day it stays on mute at the bottom of his bag. From what he tells me it is exactly what nearly every other child in the school does too, so it seems comical that the school keep reinforcing in their newsletter that phones must not be bought into school and if a child does they are breaking the school rules and any loss or damage will not be dealt with by the school. I suppose that is one way of them ensuring they don't have lots of parents banging on their door moaning about theft or breakage.

Do You Know What your Kids are Doing Online?

Parenting is a completely different ball game in 2017 than it was when I was a child. My son is now 13 years old and he is a bit of a tech genius. When his teachers have an issue he helps, when we need to know about the latest developments on the web it is him we ask and he's even applied to school to be a paid Pupil IT Technician.

When I was 13 the only piece of tech I had used was a ZX Spectrum and there was no such thing as the world wide web. When my parents wanted me to disconnect they pulled the plug out if I wasn't listening. Now I have to pray that my son is listening and being honest with me and when I ask him to have a tech free day (we all need to detox regularly) that he does stay off his laptop, iPad and phone and also that he doesn't sneak onto one of his sisters tablets or head to a friends to play or browse there.

Access to the world wide web is a normality today and generally that is a good thing as we are all able to do so much more than we used to and in a fraction of the time but as a parent it can be a real worry as to what our kids are looking at and being exposed to. If you take a look at your internet options by address you will get a sense of just how easy it is to get online, and that’s a very normal situation now. I'm sure we are all aware of good practises with our children - things like only allowing them to play, chat and browse in an open area of our house, like the lounge or kitchen and keeping an open channel for communications, so that if they do get in trouble they know they can come to you and talk about it but even better if we could have real peace of mind.

Have a look at these children (ranging in ages) talking about what they know about the Internet and then ask yourself if you know more and do you know how to keep them safe and protected from harmful material?