Approaches to AI and smartphones in Education

Once again, the Education sector finds itself front and centre of urgent national debate.  

The Children's Plan published in September found that online safety is a top four concern for over half of primary and secondary schools.  Only Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services is a greater concern, but the two are linked. 

More recently, the shadow education secretary, Laura Trott, has called for Ofsted to treat smartphone use as a safeguarding concern. Now we're seeing judicial review proceedings to challenge the Department for Education's guidance on phones in schools.  

Despite all of this, as well as the many campaigns and petitions out there, and Bridget Phillipson, Secretary of State for Education, agreeing that phones have “absolutely no place in classrooms”, there has been no clear bottom line.  

Here's a bottom line I think we can all agree on.  The Safe AI for Children Alliance (SAIFCA) have set out three non-negotiables for protecting children from online harm.

The three non-negotiables in this campaign are the tip of the iceberg, and the Education sector collectively has so much power to influence the direction of political travel on this issue, in the interests of children and young people.      

Without clear government leadership, SLTs need to deal with AI and smartphones head-on, in their own settings. They need to have joined-up digital safety policies in place, covering smartphones and AI, which are understood and followed. It requires a lot of work, consulting with and obtaining buy-in from parents, and the student voice in policy development.

At Stone King, we are regularly instructed to advise in support of policy development and training packages for compliance with legislation and good practice. If you would like to speak to one of our specialists about how we can help, please do get in touch.