Banning phones in ACT schools is a FANTASTIC step

From what I can tell, mobile phones in schools are mainly used by teenagers to share Snapchat videos of them drinking or vaping. Good times.

Or else, they are heads down at recess and lunch, looking at their phones, not engaging. Kids, get off your phones and kick a ball around!

Whatever happened to the grand tradition of a handball tournament on the asphalt at lunch?

It's not as if the phone ban in ACT public schools from next year is excessive - students from K-10 won't be able to access their devices at all, but college students will still be able to use their phones during breaks. I think phones should be banned throughout the entire school day. For everyone.

My daughter's Catholic high school doesn't allow phone use at all during the day - they can use them only once the final bell of the day has gone and they're off the school campus.

And that's great. (Although, I know kids still do get their phones out, on the sly.)

It's not as if parents can't be contacted by the school in the event of an emergency during the course of the school day.

We don't need little Johnny trying to circumvent the process by contacting his mum or dad during the day via his phone without the school knowing what's going on.

Schools have a duty of care to look after our kids - and they do.

They don't need scores of kids trying to contact their parents during the day because they feel sick, they want to come home, little Mary is annoying them, they forgot their gym gear.

If it's an emergency, the parents will be contacted by the school.

I truly don't know how teachers are expected to do their jobs with kids allowed to have access to their phones in the classroom.

They are a distraction. Kids are there to pay attention and listen to the teacher. They are not there to check how many likes they've got on the picture of their cat they posted that morning on Instagram.

One teacher told me that kids on phones just endlessly scroll and don't engage with other kids.

Ain't that the truth.

Kids now have an attention space of 0.3 seconds thanks to YouTube reels that serve up something new with every scroll up of the thumb.

"They show up to class with air pods already in and will be listening to music instead of listening to the teacher," he said.

I'm a Gen-Xer and mobile phones weren't even invented when I was in high school.

So, I guess I'm coming at it from a slightly militant angle.

It's not like my kids don't use a mobile phone. They do. Just after school. And probably to excess a lot of the time. My nine-year-old son is on daily, very loud group calls with his friends while he plays Fortnite. I'm no mobile phone puritan.

But it's hard to get kids off the phones.

So, if they are banned in school, that gives them an enforced break. Which they need. Which the teachers need.

There's. No. Need. For. Kids. To. Be. On. Their. Phones. At. School.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.