The ownership and daily usage rates of mobile phones by young people is rapidly increasing. Mobile phones are multi-purpose devices and students use them for entertainment, learning and most specifically for connection. Young people spend a significant amount of time using their mobile phones and social media to maintain their social connection and at times, put more effort into their online relationships than their face to face ones. As a result, some students spend significant amounts of time online and find it challenging to make and maintain personal connections with others.
To promote face to face connection and to reduce the amount of time students spend on their phones the College has Digital Citizenship Guidelines restricting the use of mobile phones to educational use only. It is expected that mobile phones are not used from Pastoral Care in the morning until Pastoral Care in the afternoon and we encourage students to keep their phones out of sight. We encourage students to participate in activities at lunch time that promote face to face connection rather than online connection.
We understand that when students leave our gates at the end of the day, they want to stay connected with their peers, it is important, however, that the time they spend on their phones is balanced with other activities, such as, sport, extra curricular activities and face to face interaction with family and friends. If you are finding it challenging to manage device usage at home the following strategies could be implemented:
If you are worried about your daughter and the time she spend on her device or if you would like more information about these strategies, please see the Raising Children parent website https://raisingchildren.net.au/teens/entertainment-technology/screen-time-healthy-screen-use/healthy-screen-time-teens
Kim Thomas
Middles Years Coordinator
