Bullying in schools? Blame iPads, claims U.K. politician Edward Timpson, the Minister for Children and Families.
Speaking to the House of Lords Communications Committee, Timpson said that iPads are “forming too much” of kids’ school days, and as a result are being increasingly used inappropriately for “bullying and harassment.”
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He went on to say that this link is one of the reasons the U.K. government has strengthened the powers of headteachers to “confiscate and remove material” related to such defines when they are used “inappropriately.”
Schools in the U.K. currently have no set government policy about mobile phone use, and are free to set restrictions by themselves.
The bigger issue
Timpson’s comments come not long after the U.K. government pushed through its Investigatory Powers Bill, a.k.a. the “snooper’s charter,” giving it unprecedented abilities to undermine encryption and push for surveillance backdoors.
There has been plenty of discussion over the role iPads should play in the lives of young people.
Steve Jobs famously didn’t let his kids have access to the iPad, although educational “success stories” have seen one New York elementary school taking the bold step of upgrading 75 percent of its third and fourth curriculum to iPad, meaning that students spend three-quarters of each day using their Apple tablets.
The iPad seems a strange target when it comes to bullying, however, since they are far less likely to be connected to the internet than mobile devices such as smartphones. Personally, I’d be interested to read the basis for any literature linking the iPad with bullying.
Still, as Apple continues to push for a bigger slice of the education market, it’s certainly not an association it’s likely to be too happy about!
Source: Telegraph
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
4 responses to “iPads linked to bullying in schools, claims British politician”
Lack of discipline, parental input, respect and empathy being taught to these little buggers is the cause of bullying, not a damn tablet.
A few facts:
1. Several generations of schoolchildren managed without tablets or smartphones.
2. Bullies have always existed, so it is safe to say bullying and tablets (no matter the brand) are not related.
3. Bullying is usually motivated by fear of the different (race, sex, handicap), bullies are usually not the sharpest tool in the box (usually their victims are).
4. Some people, like the neo President-elect have problems understanding “the cyber”.
My point of view is very simple. Children should NOT be allowed access to such destructive a technology, especially by parents who do not understand it themselves. But today, parents allow their children everything, as long as it allows them to keep on chatting on Whatsapp or Facebook or whatever. If parents are increasingly stupid, ignorant and uncaring, they cannot expect their children to behave differently.
An Italian judge recently said that “parenting is essentially the art of saying “NO””; but of course it is easier to feed your 1.5 years-old if you distract them with cartoons on a smartphone. Your parents didn’t have one, yet here you are…
That’s brilliant. /S blame the iPad (an inanimate object, btw) instead of the knuckleheaded kids who operate the iPad.
Bullies used to hit spit balls at kids in the back of the head. Did they ban paper and straws? Maybe saliva was the culprit. If only this modern era could understand the difference between correlation and causation…seems this wisdom has been lost somehow.