Students at Government schools and colleges will not be allowed to use their phones at any time during the school day – including break and lunch times – from September.
The restrictions will apply to all students up to the end of Key Stage 4.
The new policy was outlined in a letter sent by the Education Minister to parents and guardians today.
Deputy Rob Ward said that he wanted to create “clarity and consistency” across all Government schools and colleges.
The Minister offered guidance to parents, advising against sending children to school with smartphones, and urging close monitoring of device use if parents choose to provide one.
“Any breach of school policies where a student actively evades policy to use a phone will be dealt with according to school behaviour policy,” he said.
“If access is discovered of inappropriate sites and content, we will not hesitate to involve the police, should it be of a severe nature.”
If access is discovered of inappropriate sites and content, we will not hesitate to involve the police, should it be of a severe nature
education minister rob ward
According to the letter, schools will continue to provide safe online access for educational purposes through safeguarding software, ensuring that learning supported by online resources is not affected by the changes.
Deputy Ward said that he wanted to “avoid the use of negative language, such as ‘ban’ or ‘prohibition'”.
“I believe that we need to make the right decisions for our children’s wellbeing but do so in a way that explains the benefits of these decisions,” he said.
“At the same time, we need to work as a community to educate our young people as to the importance of being safe online.”
The Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel is currently conducting a review into how Jersey protects children from online harms after it emerged last year that the Government had turned down Parliament’s offer to extend the UK Online Safety Act to the island in favour of creating its own legislation.
In submissions to the review, the former Channel Islands data protection commissioner warned that Jersey is facing a “public health emergency” as increasing numbers of young islanders are exposed to harmful online content, and Jersey’s children’s rights watchdog called for the island to introduce stricter laws to hold online platforms accountable for child safety.
Public Health warned that “a coordinated, whole-society approach” is needed to protect young islanders from the mounting physical, mental and developmental harms associated with excessive tech use.
The department recommended that Government should “develop a policy across schools to prevent or minimise use during the school day, especially for younger pupils” – suggesting that France’s national ban on mobile phones in schools up to age 15 “offers a potential model Jersey could adopt or adapt”.
