“It is possible for kids to use them in the shape of bullying but perhaps more sinister than that it can be used by paedophiles.”
To some extent I agree with the idea of banning camera phones from schools, they certainly have the potential for intrusiveness. And the way the academic system works doesn’t deal well with the idea of communication devices by which pupils can get help from outside the classroom during a test, increasing the richness of that communication channel may be a bad thing, or it might be a signal to educators that they need to update their thinking.
But can we think a little bit about the quote above? How can they be used by paedophiles? Are we talking about banning the kids from having these phones? Or about everyone who enters schools grounds? I don’t see how you could prevent the parents coming to collect their children from school from bringing their phone with them. Or the delivery man?
Sure, the kids are in a position to take more intrusive pictures of each other than most people – but implicit in that is that there is a teacher (or other responsible adult) present who is going to make sure the kids aren’t ‘abusing’ each other. True – there is a possibility that these pictures might find their way out to a paedophile, but why is that a problem? The child was not under any specific duress at the time. No abuse has occured. Is the concern that if a paedophile obtains a picture of a particular child they are opening the possibility that that child may be chosen from the hundreds at the school?
Maybe they’re talking about banning teachers from having camera phones? But if you don’t trust your teachers to not take photos, why do you trust them to be alone with kids?
Please, when we don’t like something can we just say we don’t like it, and (if we want) why we don’t like it. And not demonise the thing we don’t like by association with the target of the latest witchhunt.
(having said which, its not clear from the article whether the emphasis on paedophiles comes from the local authority itself, or from the reporting)