Eton College has banned new pupils from bringing smartphones to school – and will issue them with a basic Nokia phone instead.
The £52,000-a-year elite private school has written to the families of its incoming Year 9 students to warn them of the new policy, which will start in September.
The world-renowned institution, whose pupils have included Princes William and Harry, has become the latest college to join the smartphone crackdown.
It comes at a time of concern about the impact hi-tech devices are having on children’s behavior and mental health.
In a letter to parents, Mike Grenier, Eton’s deputy head overseeing pastoral care, said new boarders aged 13 should take their smart devices home after their SIM card is transferred to an offline Nokia headset, which can only make calls and send text messages.
Eton currently does not allow younger boys to carry phones during the day, and those teenagers in their first three years of school must hand in their devices at night.
The latest smartphone crackdown, which will affect students in the school’s first year – Year 9 – has already been trialled in boarding houses, Mr Grenier said.
“When used responsibly and in moderation, [smartphones] can be a key part of life for the modern teenager and can create positive social networks and provide access to news and views from around the world,” he told the Telegraph.
“However, despite these positives, there are also associated issues and potential areas of concern, particularly around socialisation, misuse and overuse and the impact on both mental and physical health.”
Eton added that if a child needed a smartphone, it could be kept by staff, with the school already issuing iPads to pupils to use while studying – with “age-appropriate controls” in place.
A number of other private schools are also cracking down on smartphone use by introducing stricter September intake rules.
While some, such as Alleyn’s in Dulwich, south London, go further and urge parents not to buy young children the device at all.
At the independent Brighton College, Year 7 pupils aged 11 will not be allowed to have phones with internet access on site from September, while offline phones will be locked during the day.
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A similar rule is being introduced at Thomas’s in Battersea, south London, which was attended by Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
But other areas go even further. In the communities of Greystones and neighboring Delgany, near Dublin, Ireland. 95 percent of the 22,000 residents have banned their children from owning phones until they are at least 12 years old.
This means that most of the 3,500 primary school pupils in the area do not have a telephone.
Rachel Harper, headteacher of St Patrick’s National School in Greystones, spearheaded the initiative to ban children from using their phones.
“I’ve had calls from Australia, cameramen from the US, France and Scandinavia,” Ms Harper says. “On one level it’s amazing because we’re such a small school, but on the other hand it tells me that this is a global problem: it doesn’t matter where you live, parents have the same concerns.”
Meanwhile, in England, St Albans repeated the strike as around 20 local headteachers demanded that the Hertfordshire town become the first UK area to go smartphone-free for under-14s.
In a letter to parents, directors described the devices as “highly addictive” and urged parents not to give such hi-tech devices to their children.
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Instead, they urged parents to choose a basic “brick” that allows children to contact their family when needed – but encouraged them to ditch the smartphones that provide access to the internet, social media and an endless library of apps.
“Smartphone use is now a part of everyday life for most adults, and the age at which children receive their first smartphone has decreased significantly over the past few years,” the directors wrote in May of this year.
“We know that some children in our schools already have smartphones from Key Stage 1. While smartphones can be a very useful technology for adults, they can also expose children to a number of negative risks.”
They continued: “In a world where rapidly changing technology is truly affecting the development of our children’s brains, it is up to us to stand up for them and their future. If not us, then who?’
Parents and grandparents living in St Albans have backed the initiative, calling it a “good idea”.
Mother Ariana Stanciu, 33, said: “I saw the letter and I totally agree. I don’t think children under the age of 14 should be kept away from smartphones.”
Grandmother Sian Jay, 61, echoed those thoughts, adding: “I think the longer you can last with phones the better.
“You hear terrible things about what kids end up seeing online – and there’s a lot of concern around social media and mental health.
“I also think that I have grown children and I can see how phones affect them. So just imagine what it’s like for the kids.”
Smartphones have been linked to poor mental health, depression and low self-esteem, especially among young teenagers.
And a recent Unesco Global Education Monitoring report showed that it can take up to 20 minutes for children to concentrate when distracted by phone notifications.
Smartphones can also expose children to harmful content, including pornography – and can lead to young people being groomed and targeted by online pedophiles.