Put the brakes onEd Tech
Children and parents are the key stakeholders for education initiatives, yet the voices of families are largely unrepresented.
We are extremely concerned about the rapid proliferation of smart devices in educational settings and the fact their use has never been properly risk assessed for children, despite a growing body of evidence that screen use is negatively impacting academic attainment across schools and socio-economic groups.
Device schemes in schools rarely offer a genuine opt out for parents, even though devices are implicated in bullying, access to inappropriate content, poorer educational outcomes, elevated unhealthy levels of screen time and privacy and data security issues.
Our proposals
We are calling for the Government to prioritise these five key steps:
Challenge assumptions
We want to challenge the prevailing assumption that everything digital is good and necessarily better for a child’s education
Proper risk assessments
We are calling for a moratorium on pupil facing EdTech until an independent risk / benefit analysis of tech-based learning has been completed
Parents right to opt-out
We believe there must be a statutory right for parents to opt out of digital homework and learning materials
43% of teenagers say they often, or sometimes, use their phone to avoid interacting with someone.
Pew Research Study
Briefing Document
View and download our complete briefing document, with cited evidence of all the associated harms, and more details on our proposals.
What ourKids say
Discover what the kids say about the gadgets that shape their daily lives. These short interviews share the thoughts and opinions of kids regarding smartphones, offering a glimpse into their experiences and concerns.
Time forAction
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