Parents should ban their children from the use of smartphones

Should parents ban smartphones from their kids" rooms at night? Of course! Hi, I"m back and I"m going to show out my arguments: Types of disadvantages (of giving mobile phones to children) I'm going to talk about. 1 Social disadvantages . 2 Educational disadvantages. Let me start with the social disadvantages. Why do that? Because more than 20 percent of teenagers say they "almost always" wake up during the night to check or post on social media, a habit that disrupts their sleep, increases fatigue at school and may harm their sense of well-being. "It seems very important to discourage adolescents from using social media during the night," Dr. Kimberly Horton, a research assistant at Cardiff University in the U.K. and one of the study"s authors, said in a written statement. "No amount of effort to develop regular bedtimes or to lengthen the time in bed would seem to be able to compensate for the disruption that this can cause." For the study, researchers from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data asked more than 800 12- to 15-year-olds about their sleep habits " including how often they woke up at night to use social media. Researchers also asked about the teens" levels of energy and well-being. What did the researchers find? Waking up at night to use social networking platforms like Snapchat and Instagram was surprisingly common. Twenty-two percent of 12- and 13-year-olds and 23 percent of 14- and 15-year-olds said they "almost always" did so. More than a third said they did at least once a week. This behaviour seems to take a real toll. More than half of the heavier night-time social media users said they usually go to school feeling tired. "In turn, we find a significant association between feeling tired when they go to school and their overall levels of subjective well-being," Dr. Chris Taylor, a researcher at Cardiff and one of the study"s authors, added in an email to The Huffington Post. For some teens, this combination could contribute to mental health issues. Heavy social media use and poor sleep have both been found to take a toll on young peoples" mental health, so the combination could be even more problematic. So what"s the solution? Pushing back school start times probably isn't the answer, as the study"s authors argue that more time to sleep in the morning doesn"t compensate for sleep disruptions. Structured morning routines can be helpful for mediating the effects of poor sleep, the researchers explain, so disrupting those routines with later school start times may not be beneficial. Instead, the study suggests that it may be more effective to discourage teens from using technology at night. One way to do it? Keeping digital devices out of the bedroom so that a good night"s sleep won"t be ruined by the lure of Twitter. "The benefits of having a regular bedtime, a reasonable bedtime, and a sensible amount of time in bed entirely are expunged if adolescents are waking up to use social media," Horton said. Secondly, educational disadvantages: Fears over the disruption to classrooms from pupils using smartphones have prompted the Government to commission a review into the way technology affects behaviour in schools. Children should not be allowed smartphones until they are 16, according to Tom Bennett, the school behaviour expert leading the review. And teachers should not allow them unless absolutely necessary, says Mr Bennett, who is already leading another review into how teachers are trained to tackle bad behaviour. He has now been asked to look at the wider challenges of managing modern classrooms. Although technology can enhance learning, teachers have reported that the growing number of children bringing digital devices into class is leading to disruption, officials warn. "We need to make sure the advice we give to schools, and the approaches being used are fit for the 21st century when even primary school pupils may be bringing in phones or tablets. That is why we have taken the decision to expand Tom Bennett"s review to look at how teachers can tackle bad behaviour," said Nick Gibb, the schools minister. "Whether it is the use of mobile phones or the attitudes of parents to their child"s behaviour in class, we will now probe deeper into behaviour to ensure that no child has to put up with having their education disrupted by misbehaviour." Most schools have some sort of policy regarding smartphone use, amid concerns over cyberbullying and online pornography. However, the picture is far from uniform " ranging from zero-tolerance to partial bans. "I think smartphones in a classroom represent an enormous level of temptation for students, but that isn"t to say that I would ban them," said Mr Bennett. "My personal recommendation is that schools think very cautiously and carefully before allowing them. I think the default should be that they are not allowed unless teachers invite them for some specific reason. Children are getting access to the technology too young, he said. "People ask me, "When should I give my child a smartphone?" and I say, "Whenever you"re comfortable with them viewing pornography", because their curiosity will take them there. "My personal belief is that I don"t think a child should have a smartphone until they are 16, unless it is under adult supervision." Phone use was a child protection issue, he said. "Most parents would supervise in some way internet access for children, and I think it would be an absurd proposition to say that schools shouldn"t do that because we are looking after their safety. I don"t want children in playgrounds swapping pornographic pictures or pictures of horrific scenes or racist websites or whatever. I want to know roughly what they are looking at, and that includes in school." http://www.huffingtonpost.com... http://www.independent.co.uk... I STRONGLY CALL UPON VOTERS TO VOTE BY FACT AND POWER OF DEBATE, NOT BY OPINION. Thank you. Adil Muhammad, Qatar.