Sheffield Council to create public campaign over smartphone ban

The council decided to instead create a support webpage for parents to get trusted guidance rather than “different information depending on your algorithms”

Sheffield City Council’s education committee will create a public campaign rather than an ‘all out ban’ on smartphones, following concerns raised by a parent-led campaign group.

The decision follows Australia’s social media ban for under-16s in December last year

placeholder image — The decision follows Australia’s social media ban for under-16s in December last year

Pat Butterell, assistant director for early years, education and skills at the council, told the Education, Children and Families Policy Committee the campaign would include a new webpage giving parents and carers guidance and links to relevant sources of support rather than “telling families what they should do”.

He said: “It would not be appropriate for the council to attempt to replace the judgement of the school leaders and governing bodies.”

This work was established following concerns from Smartphone Free Childhood, a parent-led campaign with more than 350,000 members across the UK.

The discussions also follow Australia’s social media ban for under-16s and wider concerns over the impact of smartphones on young people's mental health and wellbeing.

The council's move is thought to help make reliable information easier to find.

Councillor Dawn Dale, chair of the committee, said at the beginning of the project she felt an “all out ban” would be the right move.

89 per cent of 12-year-olds now own a smartphone and on average, children get their first smartphone aged nine, according to Smartphone Free Childhood

However, after understanding data and reports, she felt the council's role was to “give people the information that parents need to be able to support their children and young people through the digital world”.

She said: “What parents were telling me is that they don't know where to go for help.

Coun Dawn Dale said the campaign will enable parents to better support their children | Iconic Media

“There is not one place where they can go to look for guidance around devices, exploitation online, age appropriate things.

“There's lots of different platforms with lots of different information and depending on your algorithms it will tell you lots of different things. As the local authority, we are a trusted platform.”

Coun Rob Bannister hoped the campaign would improve general digital health and educate parents to set good examples like putting their own phones down.

However, Coun Luke Goddard questioned if this could be a wasted exercise if schools have their own policies or if the government changes their statutory guidance.

Coun Dale responded: “We have a responsibility to be able to empower parents in the city to be able to support their children and that's what we're doing.

“We've got analogue parents bringing up digital children that just don't understand how to manage that.”

Mr Butterell said schools are already expected to operate as mobile free environments during the school day, and added that the campaign will complement Department for Education and Ofsted guidance.

The date for the live webpage is not set but Coun Dale said work is in progress.