More than a quarter of all children surveyed had seen or experienced something online in the last year that bothered, scared or upset them, or made them wish they had not seen such sexual or violent content.

Alongside a burgeoning body of scientific research in the area, recent calls from Unesco to remove smartphones from classrooms put the spotlight firmly on the harmful effects of their unrestricted use on children.

However, it goes without saying that most Irish schools already restrict children’s access to personal devices throughout the school day. Many have done so since Nokia 3310s started becoming popular post-Confirmation purchases for freshly minted students back in the early 2000s.

And while parental support for smartphone bans remains high on all accounts, so too remains the rate of smartphone ownership among children.

CyberSafeKids points to almost three in four 12-year-olds owning a smartphone before making the transition to secondary school.

It could be read that the high rates of ownership among children — coupled with the widespread support for a ban of such devices among parents — are more to do with parents being uncomfortable with their own child’s smartphone usage.

However, no one wants to be the odd one out on the playground, be it the child without the tech all their friends have access to or the ‘big meanie’ parent to first initiate their own household ban. 

Dealing with fallout

In the meantime, schools are finding themselves increasingly forced to deal with the fallout when students’ online activities go awry.

Things like being excluded from a chat group, seeing nasty comments posted about yourself, or receiving hurtful messages most often happen away from school premises and late at night, with their ramifications then following students back onto the playground the next day.

Almost three-quarters of the teachers surveyed told CyberSafeKids  online safety was a “significant” issue in their school, and a further 62% reported dealing with online safety incidents, including cyberbullying, more than once over the past year.

Principal of Presentation Primary School in Terenure, Dublin, Carmel Hume said the latest CyberSafeKids report confirmed the findings of the school’s own teachers. 

We were shocked by the number of children who had access to their smartphones in their bedrooms late at night. Many slept with phones under their pillows.” 

Negative commentary online has become normalised and the nuances of face-to-face communication and engagements are being lost, she believes. 

“As principal of an all-girls school, I worry about the influence of social media on image and body positivity, and I urge parents and guardians to exercise stronger control.”

Peer pressure

Few of us can stand strong in the face of sustained peer pressure, be it young people or their parents, and this is where such voluntary initiatives banning smartphones are seeing success.

Started by parents' associations at eight schools in Greystones, Co Wicklow, earlier this year, the no-smartphone code allows parents to present a united front, making it easier to say no to providing such devices.

A similar approach was rolled out across all primary schools in Waterford at the start of the new term, with each school asking parents not to give their children smartphones until they reach secondary school or to allow them access to social media and age-restricted games.

Influenced by the success of Greystones, schools across the county joined together earlier this year to work on the campaign in conjunction with Barnardos.

At the time, Portlaw National School principal Brian Barron, who is a parent himself, said it could be difficult for parents to say no to smartphones on their own.

"Our hope is that this charter will encourage parents to start a conversation amongst themselves and to empower them to draw a line for their children."

Buy-in from parents

These initiatives are seeing success because they have significant buy-in from parents. Putting it simply down to a school-only initiative will not cut it, especially for a national policy. 

The haste to discuss and debate a potential schoolwide ban also moves the spotlight away from social media companies and their responsibilities to online safety. 

CyberSafeKids highlighted a case of a family where an imposter account featuring photos and inappropriate posts had been set up in their child’s name on a popular video-sharing platform.

The person behind the fake account was calling the child names such as ‘paedo’, which of course was deeply distressing for the family, who reported it to the platform immediately.

However, despite reporting it multiple times via different channels, the family received no response at all for three weeks.

It was later sorted within four minutes of the case being reported by the charity.  At the end of the day, children's safety online is a shared responsibility requiring a more urgent response from all shareholders, including social media platforms.