Dingwall P7 class’ campaign to lock up phones overnight
A GROUP of Dingwall P7s have started locking up their phones overnight — and they are encouraging their parents and fellow classmates to follow suit.
The P7B class at Dingwall Primary was enlightened to the impact of their mobile phones after watching a Channel 4 documentary that saw a school challenged to give them up for 21 days. All but four of the pupils in the class have their own mobile phone.
Class teacher, Ms Mellon, said: “It started in the Christmas holidays when I watched Swiped with my family. While I was watching it, I realised that everyone in my household was looking down at their phone while it was playing on the TV. The big message from the documentary was about the bad habits we have from looking at our screens far too much.
“So, with the parents’ permission, I showed it to the class when we came back to school. They really, really paid attention. After we watched it, we got into a big class discussion about what we should do now.”
Giving examples of some of the concerning and inappropriate content children have been exposed to, due to their phones, P7 pupil Lewis said: “The documentary said that kids have seen things that make them want to commit suicide.”
Classmate Connor added: “Children as young as nine have seen porn on the internet.”
Brogan said: “It’s really easy to lie about your age to get into age-restricted apps.”
Ms Mellon continued: “The school in the documentary took part in a big digital detox, and we decided we wanted to do that too.
“We dediced to hand-in our phones overnight — and it was actually a really good night! The class made an effort to meet up and spend time together instead of being on their phones.”
The P7s were confident in stating that they did not find it difficult to spend a night without their devices.
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After the detox success, the class decided that they wanted to spread the word further, naming their campaign Look Up. They made a presentation to the rest of Dingwall Primary School in assembly, and made posters to share online. When speaking to the other classes, the P7s discovered that eight of the P2/3 class already had phones.
On February 13, the class held another overnight phone detox, while encouraging everyone else in the school to take part. They had a total of 30 devices handed in.
“We’re not saying ‘Don’t have a phone’, we just want people to be more aware of how much time they are spending on their phone,” Ms Mellon said. “Because they are P7, they are the cool kids of the school! So the younger kids seeing them encouraging each other to play outside without their phones, is such a good message.”
