MOBILE PHONES


Paul Whiteing from phone- paid services regulator


PhonepayPlus discusses their PhoneBrain schools programme which aims to educate children about mobile phone services


people and the ever-expanding array of gadgets and gizmos are concerned. The term digital natives accurately describes those


I


under-18s who could not imagine a world without mobile phones or the internet. The question that confronts adults – particularly those of us who have an interest in education – is: “How do we protect kids from the perils while ensuring that they take full advantage of the potentials offered by this brave new world?” There are two schools of thought on how we should


tackle this problem. A recent article in theGuardian put the choice neatly: “Today’s teachers can be split into two groups: those who confiscate gadgets and those who give them out.” I know where I stand as a dad and as a school


governor. But what about the regulator’s perspective? As head of the agency that regulates phone-paid


services – everything from television voting and competition shows to mobile ringtones and games – I am acutely aware of the potential risks for kids and teenagers. Young adults are less concerned about the security


of entering personal details online. Despite age verification requirements, they could get access to adult material. Companies could prey on their vulnerabilities


HAVE A three-fold interest in kids and new technologies – as a dad, as chair of a primary school governing body, and as chief executive of the phone-paid services regulator, PhonepayPlus. Any parent, any teacher, is all too aware of both the perils and potentials where young


– loneliness, say, or insecurity. Not quite having the financial acumen one might wish for, they could run up bills of hundreds of pounds on a contract phone before their parents find out and are left to foot the bill. So are we at PhonepayPlus in the confiscators’


camp? Far from it. We regulate an industry in the real world that involves


technologies that young people readily engage with. We need to make every effort to ensure young people know the risks and are protected from real dangers. But we cannot wrap them up in cotton wool and we cannot act like King Canute trying to turn back the waves of technology – 95 per cent of young people now have a mobile and 42 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds say they would miss their mobile more than anything else. And the statistics keep stacking up. According to


Ofcom’s research, young adults are far more interested in, and confident with, using a wide variety of mobile phone functions. According to our own research, 37 per cent of 11 to 17-year-olds have used music or video content on their phones in the last six months. Almost a third of parents say their child spends at least half their pocket money on their mobile phone.


As a regulator, whose focus is on consumer


protection, we came to the conclusion that the best way to protect kids was to use their enthusiasm for and interest in mobiles to get the message across. Working with teachers and industry, we put together


a schools programme focused on ICT and enterprise with curriculum-friendly lessons. At the same time as teens learn how to make a ringtone in ICT or come up with a phone-paid services business plan in enterprise, they also learn about how to spot “dodgy” services, how to protect themselves (and their parents!) from “bill shock”, and what consumer-friendly, good-value premium-rate services should look like. We have also worked with those brands likely to


appeal to our target age group, using music supplied by Ministry of Sound in a curriculum-friendly competition to produce a ringtine for our PhoneBrain schools programme ambassador, Fugative’s, personal mobile. The proof of the pudding, of course, is in the eating.


So how did this classroom experiment we started two years ago – when uniquely we brought a regulator, teachers and industry together to educate and engage young people – turn out?


Better than we could have imagined. Last year


650 schools took part. In the first month of this year’s competition, we had exceeded that number by 100 and were on course for 1,000 schools signing up. Meeting kids through PhoneBrain, we hear the


odd woeful tale of how teens got caught out by not understanding the costs involved and the uncomfortable conversations with parents that ensued once the phone bill arrived. But we also see how, once given the information they need, young people are willing and able to make their own well-informed choices about what they use their mobiles for. In the case of PhoneBrain, mobiles in the classroom


is not just a gimmick with gizmos. Using mobiles in lesson plans is part and parcel of delivering effective education about the world young people live in and learn through.


SecEd


• Paul Whiteing is chief executive of the phone-paid services regulator PhonepayPlus.


Further information www.phonebrain.org.uk


Protecting digital natives


SecEddigital You can:


• Search the issue for keywords • Access archived editions


• Bookmark and annotate pages for colleagues • Email issues and news directly to the editor • Search the latest teaching jobs


If you want to receive


SecEddigital free every week, email editor@sec-ed.co.uk


UK education news, best practice features, the very best comment and opinion


– All to your email, All for free – Register now!


SecEd • June 24 2010


7


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24