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What is your stance on moves by some schools to bar children from bringing cell phones to school?

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I think you will hear loud crying and long screams. And then the kids will be pissed too.

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It's overkill.

By all means ban mobile use during classtime - that should be a given - but the schools simply saying 'You can't have one at all' is going too far. Whether a kid should have a mobile is for his parents to decide. If the mobile gets in the way of school work/school life, confiscate it at the point it becomes a problem, and invite the parents in to have a chat with the teacher, discuss what who should be teaching the child about manners, common sense, social responsibility etc., before they're allowed to reclaim Junior's electronic dummy.

The problems associated with kids having mobiles are twofold.

Clueless kids logging onto 'dangerous' sites and getting themselves into trouble: let them have a simple phone that allows them to phone home and maybe a couple of other numbers, but that doesn't have Internet access. (This is al kids need anyway, so that they can keep in touch with home) Teach the kid a bit of common sense about using the Internet before he's allowed to have a 'grown-up' phone.

Kids who use their phone to bully/intimidate/harass other kids: if these kids didn't have a phone, they'd be harassing other kids in a different way. (If a nutter is hitting someone with a big stick, taking the stick away doesn't stop the nutter from wanting to hit someone: unless you deal with the underlying psychosis, he's going to start throwing rocks, using his fists, pulling pigtails, etc.) Teach the kids basic social skills, provide therapy for those with real problems.

What it all boils down to is the need to treat the problem, not the symptoms. Mobile phone misuse is a symptom of bigger, deeper problems.

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Unconstitutional. Principals of these schools should be prosecuted in civil and in case they confiscated phones in criminal courts.

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It's wrong! Instead of banning them they should be teaching the kids correct etiquette and warning them of the dangers of these social networking sites. 60% of the mobile phone emails sent by Japanese kids and teens are sent to people they have never met. That is alarming!

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In Iran, we saw that young girl being killed and it was recorded via a cell phone. Kids should learn how to use the cell phone to take pictures and video, to record things. Even a sound recorded could prove to be useful. Children are safer with cell phones. In Japan, the children are left alone to their own devices quite a bit. A cell phone could record a situation better than hearsay. One observant middle schooler stated in the US, "Why? What are they trying to hide!" by banning cell phone use. cleo's post is also very good advice.

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Cell phones are an annoyance. I have to constantly watch other drivers like never before because no one is paying attention to driving. People walk across the street talking on a cell phone and pay no attention to the traffic. I use mine for business and that is it. Kids use them to text each other because they are alienated from each other and don't want to speak. Kids use them to cheat in class. Predators use them to reach naive kids and rendevous with them and then they get into trouble. Cell phones don't belong in a classroom period.

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Make is so that you have to be 18 to own one, and even then have to demonstrate that you earn enough money to pay for the bills yourself. Kids have no need for them.

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Excellent. How did we get along all those previous millennia without kids having cell phones? Cell phones are extremely distracting even to adults, so imagine how difficult it would be to manage 20 cell phone wielding kids in a classroom.

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Docomo have a mobile phone specifically aimed at kids and their safety. The phone has a function to allows the parents to cut email and program the phone so that it can only dial pre-set numbers.

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Cleo's got it pretty much right, although Oneforall certainly has a point. Wasn't there a kid in Korea who filmed his teacher beating his classmates? Illegally I might add, (the teacher beating the kids, not the boy videoing it.) Without the evidence the teacher would still be doing it.

I can envisage a child recording voice and/or video of a teacher suggesting something inappropriate. It's a great way to find out if your parents think you should do the new, exclusive, after school club.

Personally I think they shouldn't be allowed to use phones in school. But if there's some sort of block and a nutter gets in the classroom and holds them hostage, how will they raise the alarm?

Definitely it's a difficult call to make, but if only us humans had a bit of self control there'd be no need to ban anything.

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Many schools have rules against using phones during class time. Doesn't stop all of the students though. So, arrive at school, put your phone in your phone locker. You can have access at lunch time, and finally pick it up on your way to club or home. Total ban is a bad idea. Can also be used for a class or two on proper use, manners, etc. Make the rule, and stick to it. Give the teachers and/or school the power to enforce it, and not let some parents insist their child must have their phone all day. If parents are worried about the gps in the phone in case their child is abducted, tell them to implant a gps chip under their child's skin. I believe a company in Mexico is doing a booming business doing just that and offering a tracking service. The gps in the phone will only help them find the phone.

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Teach the kid a bit of common sense

haha thats the funniest thing i've read in years

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Just let them bring cell phones,but they should ban them,from keeping the cell phone on,during classes,when teachers need to concentrate on teaching.

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Worrying from a safety perspective. Rather than banning phones, kids should be educated how to use them. Also like Cleo's idea of cut-down models for kids with no Internet access.

Moreover, with regard to banning phones, if something were to happen to a child for want of a phone, I would love to see the parents of the child sue these pontificating gits who propose a blanket ban into the poor house

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We did not have cell phones in schools back when, so why do they need them now? Everybody got along just fine with out them.

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Yes Michiko, but reading by candle light and writing on a slate? Times have changed.

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A great idea...this should happen in the US as well...

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What a great idea. Kids dont need cellphones. My kids wont be getting them until they are working and can pay their own bills.

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Well, we could ban bullying or ban cell phones. Which one I wonder?

How can a culture in which communication is a foreign language be so obsessed with telephones? Because true love is found on the other end of the telephone line from where you don't have to deal with the reality of...

Fake! Fake! Fake!

By the by...Schools starting collecting phones in boxes a long time ago, so this "ban" is nothing more than window dressing anyway.

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When I was at school they banned ball pens and calculators, now it's cell phones. When will the teachers learn? Their students are the potential innovators of the future, so why do they resist the future they invest their time in?

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In my school cell-phones must be switched off and be invisible while the student is on the premises and classes are in session. S/he is permitted to check messages and make short calls during a lunch break, if necessary and with permission in a specific "call area." The student forfeits the phone if it rings or chirps in class, and it is not returned. Ever. The parents agree to these terms in advance, so there's no quibbling. We had a fire and a student called the FD using her own phone, so obviously, that was permitted judicious use. They're not banned. Only their use is controlled. Nobody says they're bad, we just need a bit of common sense in how they're used. Common sense, unfortunately, is not that common.

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