tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/mobile-phones-496/articlesMobile phones – The Conversation2024-03-11T19:14:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248482024-03-11T19:14:05Z2024-03-11T19:14:05ZWe looked at all the recent evidence on mobile phone bans in schools – this is what we found<p>Mobile phones are currently banned in all Australian state schools and many Catholic and independent schools around the country. This is part of a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/08/online-learning-digital-divide-mobile-phone-school-education/">global trend</a> over <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/earl-grey-public-school-cell-phones-1.3992597">more than a decade</a> to restrict phone use in schools.</p>
<p>Australian governments say banning mobile phones will <a href="https://www.education.wa.edu.au/mobile-phones">reduce distractions in class</a>, allow students to <a href="https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/latest-news/mobile-phones-now-banned-in-all-nsw-public-schools#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CThis%20ban%20creates%20a%20level,opportunities%20for%20distraction%20and%20cyberbullying">focus on learning</a>, improve <a href="https://www.education.sa.gov.au/mobile-phones#:%7E:text=The%20State%20Government%20has%20banned,watches%2C%20in%20all%20public%20schools">student wellbeing</a> and <a href="https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/98137#:%7E:text=Education%20Minister%20Grace%20Grace%20has,%2D%20from%20Term%201%2C%202024">reduce cyberbullying</a>. </p>
<p>But previous research has shown there is <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-education-minister-we-dont-have-enough-evidence-to-support-banning-mobile-phones-in-schools-151574">little evidence</a> on whether the bans actually achieve these aims. </p>
<p>Many places that restricted phones in schools before Australia did have now reversed their decisions. For example, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/earl-grey-public-school-cell-phones-1.3992597">several school districts in Canada</a> implemented outright bans then revoked them as they were too hard to maintain. They now allow teachers to make decisions that suit their own classrooms. </p>
<p>A ban was similarly revoked in <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/013-15/mayor-de-blasio-chancellor-fari-a-lift-school-cell-phone-ban">New York City</a>, partly because bans made it harder for parents to stay in contact with their children.</p>
<p>What does recent research say about phone bans in schools? </p>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>We conducted a “scoping review” of all published and unpublished global evidence for and against banning mobile phones in schools. </p>
<p>Our review, which is pending publication, aims to shed light on whether mobile phones in schools impact academic achievement (including paying attention and distraction), students’ mental health and wellbeing, and the incidence of cyberbullying.</p>
<p>A scoping review is done when researchers know there aren’t many studies on a particular topic. This means researchers cast a very inclusive net, to gather as much evidence as possible. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-ban-on-cellphones-in-schools-might-be-more-of-a-distraction-than-the-problem-its-trying-to-fix-211494">Why a ban on cellphones in schools might be more of a distraction than the problem it’s trying to fix</a>
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<p>Our team screened 1,317 articles and reports as well as dissertations from masters and PhD students. We identified 22 studies that examined schools before and after phone bans. There was a mix of study types. Some looked at multiple schools and jurisdictions, some looked at a small number of schools, some collected quantitative data, others sought qualitative views. </p>
<p>In a sign of just how little research there is on this topic, 12 of the studies we identified were done by masters and doctoral students. This means they are not peer-reviewed but done by research students under supervision by an academic in the field. </p>
<p>But in a sign of how fresh this evidence is, almost half the studies we identified were published or completed since 2020.</p>
<p>The studies looked at schools in Bermuda, China, the Czech Republic, Ghana, Malawi, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. None of them looked at schools in Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young boy looks at his smart phone in class." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580312/original/file-20240307-22-3expkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580312/original/file-20240307-22-3expkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580312/original/file-20240307-22-3expkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580312/original/file-20240307-22-3expkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580312/original/file-20240307-22-3expkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580312/original/file-20240307-22-3expkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580312/original/file-20240307-22-3expkn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We looked at 22 studies where phones had been banned in schools around the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/boy-sitting-on-his-desk-while-using-his-smartphone-6936143/">RDNE Stock Project/ Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Academic achievement</h2>
<p>Our research found four studies that identified a slight improvement in academic achievement when phones were banned in schools. However, two of these <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537116300136?casa_token=bQMfigICJMsAAAAA:9nJN9s6erMz4p7W2ptjJm-7gc3KW0D2O1IQpEeChbemsIhinE2frGQCN8BvLw1_r5XRJT3Pq-1LE">studies</a> found this improvement only applied to disadvantaged or low-achieving students. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AEA-05-2021-0112/full/pdf">studies</a> compared schools where there were partial bans against schools with complete bans. This is a problem because it confuses the issue.</p>
<p>But three studies found no differences in academic achievement, whether there were mobile phone bans or not. Two of these studies used very large samples. This <a href="https://openaccess.nhh.no/nhh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2586497/masterthesis.PDF">masters thesis</a> looked at 30% of all schools in Norway. Another study used a nationwide cohort <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775719303966?casa_token=nYpA_ewpFy4AAAAA:H5jddXYmWEIHwtoMkStQqM-BU8sjVHFAXJO2y5ba-QYVBY5OihqZWXOFrWbt2cC4JTjX_RHOdtpN">in Sweden</a>. This means we can be reasonably confident in these results. </p>
<h2>Mental health and wellbeing</h2>
<p>Two studies in our review, including this <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2724707016?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses">doctoral thesis</a>, reported mobile phone bans had positive effects on students’ mental health. However, both studies used teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of students’ wellbeing (the students were not asked themselves). </p>
<p>Two other <a href="https://openaccess.nhh.no/nhh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/3119200/DP%2001.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">studies</a> showed no differences in psychological wellbeing following mobile phone bans. However, three <a href="https://openaccess.nhh.no/nhh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2586497/masterthesis.PDF">studies</a> reported more harm to students’ mental health and wellbeing when they were subjected to phone bans. </p>
<p>The students reported they felt more anxious without being able to use their phone. This was especially evident in one <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2689199188?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses">doctoral thesis</a> carried out when students were returning to school after the pandemic, having been very reliant on their devices during lockdown. </p>
<p>So the evidence for banning mobile phones for the mental health and wellbeing of student is inconclusive and based only on anecdotes or perceptions, rather than the recorded incidence of mental illness.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person with painted nails and rings holds a mobile phone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580313/original/file-20240307-22-w25u9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580313/original/file-20240307-22-w25u9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580313/original/file-20240307-22-w25u9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580313/original/file-20240307-22-w25u9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580313/original/file-20240307-22-w25u9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580313/original/file-20240307-22-w25u9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580313/original/file-20240307-22-w25u9z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some studies on the impact of mobile phone bans on mental health are based on parent and teacher perceptions – not students’ own views.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/person-using-smartphone-BjhUu6BpUZA">Priscilla Du Preez/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Bullying and cyberbullying</h2>
<p>Four <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AEA-05-2021-0112/full/pdf">studies</a> reported a small reduction in bullying in schools following phone bans, especially among older students. However, the studies did not specify whether or not they were talking about cyberbullying.</p>
<p>Teachers in two other studies, including this <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/2647342474?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses">doctoral thesis</a>, reported they believed having mobile phones in schools increased cyberbullying. </p>
<p>But two other <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17439884.2014.994219?casa_token=Xz1CdFpDezkAAAAA:MLdDDogmCgLtK2gl_VNf4S3z0LDvwgXCVEBq2TjKMz-rMbhZQkqBp_cq7NwguMlsHh7UbO3zS3_yAYY">studies</a> showed the number of incidents of online victimisation and harassment was greater in schools with mobile phone bans compared with those without bans. The study didn’t collect data on whether the online harassment was happening inside or outside school hours. </p>
<p>The authors suggested this might be because students saw the phone bans as punitive, which made the school climate less egalitarian and less positive. Other research has <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-new-study-provides-a-potential-breakthrough-on-school-bullying-195716">linked</a> a positive school climate with fewer incidents of bullying. </p>
<p>There is no research evidence that students do or don’t use other devices to bully each other if there are phone bans. But it is of course possible for students to use laptops, tablets, smartwatches or library computers to conduct cyberbullying.</p>
<p>Even if phone bans were effective, they would not address the bulk of school bullying. A 2019 Australian <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0004867419846393">study</a> found 99% of students who were cyberbullied were also bullied face-to-face.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-mobile-phones-in-schools-beneficial-or-risky-heres-what-the-evidence-says-119456">Banning mobile phones in schools: beneficial or risky? Here's what the evidence says</a>
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<h2>What does this tell us?</h2>
<p>Overall, our study suggests the evidence for banning mobile phones in schools is weak and inconclusive. </p>
<p>As Australian education academic Neil Selwyn <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/bjet.12943?casa_token=AVdtXqL3axkAAAAA:LvtTstPg1Y631NnNTmj__y2j-fG2R-brH-288C_lwebO14P-RxclPkyS7ld7cDqQE5cFg6lxlNBkIsQ">argued in 2021</a>, the impetus for mobile phone bans says more about MPs responding to community concerns rather than research evidence. </p>
<p>Politicians should leave this decision to individual schools, which have direct experience of the pros or cons of a ban in their particular community. For example, a community in remote Queensland could have different needs and priorities from a school in central Brisbane. </p>
<p>Mobile phones are an integral part of our lives. We need to be teaching children about appropriate use of phones, rather than simply banning them. This will help students learn how to use their phones safely and responsibly at school, at home and beyond. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-phone-bans-seem-obvious-but-could-make-it-harder-for-kids-to-use-tech-in-healthy-ways-204111">School phone bans seem obvious but could make it harder for kids to use tech in healthy ways</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224848/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our study suggests the evidence for banning mobile phones in schools is weak when you look at the impact on academic results, student wellbeing and cyberbullying.Marilyn Campbell, Professor, School of Early Childhood & Inclusive Education, Queensland University of TechnologyElizabeth J Edwards, Associate Professor in Education, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2231902024-02-27T23:08:38Z2024-02-27T23:08:38ZShould you be checking your kid’s phone? How to know when your child is ready for ‘phone privacy’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576354/original/file-20240219-30-bolx5l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=275%2C646%2C4164%2C3181&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/child-using-smart-phone-lying-bed-2299524663">Aleksandra Suzi/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Smartphone ownership among younger children is <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/255852/childrens-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2023.pdf">increasing rapidly</a>. Many primary school children now own smartphones and they have become the norm in high school.</p>
<p>Parents of younger children may occasionally (or routinely) look at their child’s phone to check it’s being used responsibly and safely.</p>
<p>But as children mature into teens, parental inspections will likely feel like an invasion of privacy. Many would not ask for a high schooler’s diary, yet phones hold even more personal information. </p>
<p>So, what do parents need to consider when making the “phone rules” for their children as they get older?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575539/original/file-20240214-27-yg1k3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A girl looks surprised while her dad talks to her about phone use." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575539/original/file-20240214-27-yg1k3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575539/original/file-20240214-27-yg1k3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575539/original/file-20240214-27-yg1k3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575539/original/file-20240214-27-yg1k3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575539/original/file-20240214-27-yg1k3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575539/original/file-20240214-27-yg1k3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575539/original/file-20240214-27-yg1k3s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is it OK for a parent to ask a teen to show them their phone?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-father-asking-his-daughter-stop-1502950871">CGN089/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/school-phone-bans-seem-obvious-but-could-make-it-harder-for-kids-to-use-tech-in-healthy-ways-204111">School phone bans seem obvious but could make it harder for kids to use tech in healthy ways</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Early smartphone ownership</h2>
<p>Parents get their younger children phones for many reasons. Some feel it will help keep kids safe when, for example, travelling on their own to and from school. Others have bought one after intense pressure from their child or worry their child will be left out socially if all their friends have a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13229400.2023.2207563">phone</a>. </p>
<p>In my own research with parents, some also tell me they are reluctant to let their child use the parents’ phone for fear of risking important work files or information stored on the phone.</p>
<p>But many parents also worry getting a phone early might encourage phone addiction, or that a child might be accessing adult content. </p>
<p>Parental guidance for this age group tends to focus on safety, which usually includes checking the child’s phone activity (with or without the child’s knowledge), restricting access through passwords or <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13229400.2023.2207563">time limits</a>.</p>
<p>Parents understandably want their children to be safe. Monitoring may be part of this, but it’s not the whole story. Most important is our role in equipping children to make good, independent and responsible decisions with their phone.</p>
<p>This means teaching children a broader set of skills about how to use phones safely and in a way that maximises potential for learning, connection and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482798.2020.1725902">self-expression</a>.</p>
<p>Education and open dialogue about phone safety should begin the day your child gets their phone and continue as they grow. </p>
<p>The focus should be on problem-solving together and respectfully. This is what will empower them to self-regulate appropriately as they grow. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575522/original/file-20240214-30-4ek2z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C33%2C5580%2C3664&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young boy looks at his phone while sitting at home." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575522/original/file-20240214-30-4ek2z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C33%2C5580%2C3664&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575522/original/file-20240214-30-4ek2z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575522/original/file-20240214-30-4ek2z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575522/original/file-20240214-30-4ek2z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575522/original/file-20240214-30-4ek2z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575522/original/file-20240214-30-4ek2z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575522/original/file-20240214-30-4ek2z3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the first year of a younger child owning a phone, the focus should be on safety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/leisure-children-technology-internet-addiction-people-336092240">Ground Picture/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>A phased approach: laying the groundwork early</h2>
<p>In the first year of a younger child owning a phone, the focus should be on safety.</p>
<p>This may include controls, restrictions and monitoring, but does not necessarily need to include phone checking. Establishing the rules on safety and wellbeing for using the phone is key. </p>
<p>This means talking to your children about how and when they use their phone, why they shouldn’t answer unknown texts and calls, beware of giving out personal information online, and about being kind online. Let your children know they can always talk to you if they have a weird or bad experience online. </p>
<p>Parents should also focus on bigger picture safety and digital habits education. This can include, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>reviewing privacy and app settings together</p></li>
<li><p>understanding screen time features and how to use them </p></li>
<li><p>learning how routines such as reaching for the phone when you wake can have a negative impact. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Look for quality apps together that your child may enjoy or benefit from, such as productivity apps, creative or problem solving games, music or science-based games or other apps that will help develop their interests and life skills.</p>
<p>Trial and test apps or games together with your child to see how they work.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575521/original/file-20240214-26-f775n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4479%2C2977&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young teen looks at her mobile phone while sitting on the couch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575521/original/file-20240214-26-f775n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4479%2C2977&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575521/original/file-20240214-26-f775n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575521/original/file-20240214-26-f775n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575521/original/file-20240214-26-f775n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575521/original/file-20240214-26-f775n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575521/original/file-20240214-26-f775n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575521/original/file-20240214-26-f775n6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Smartphone ownership among younger children is increasing rapidly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/upset-depressed-caucasian-little-kid-girl-2152037861">Iren_Geo/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Adapting the approach as children mature</h2>
<p>As children mature, parental guidance also needs to change alongside it.</p>
<p>After about 12 months of the child’s phone ownership (give or take), checking phones needs to fade, and ongoing open communication needs to become the mainstay. </p>
<p>At this older stage, parents should have frequent, open discussions with their children about online safety, respect and responsibility. Ask your child questions about their phone experiences and always encourage them to ask for help in difficult situations.</p>
<p>Parents may also trial new ways of using the phone or certain apps together with their child. For example, the child and parent can use the screentime feature to discuss, and be aware of, their developing phone habits. It may also include learning to use the camera and its features well or trying new apps (such as a creative drawing app) that allow them to explore a new interest.</p>
<p>Help your child work out which habits work for them and which ones seem to cause stress. For example, if your child is on a WhatsApp group with friends and classmates, is that causing stress or worry? Talk to them about how they can handle it if they or a classmate are being talked about in the group chat. </p>
<p>The risk of routinely checking a teen’s phone is that it may end up fostering mistrust between parent and child. Regular conversations about phone and online safety, and discussing news articles on the topic are two ways of keeping safety front and centre. This helps promote good communication and trust.</p>
<h2>Alleviating fear and worry</h2>
<p>Taking a phased approach helps your child develop the skills and values they need to be able to make good, independent decisions. </p>
<p>Some children may need more or less than 12 months in the stricter hands-on initial phase. Much depends on their maturity, the home environment and their social world. </p>
<p>But taking a broader and adaptable approach will also help a parent better understand their child as a phone user. </p>
<p>This can help alleviate the fear and worry many parents have about phones and kids.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-screen-time-rose-by-50-during-the-pandemic-3-tips-for-the-whole-family-to-bring-it-back-down-193955">Kids' screen time rose by 50% during the pandemic. 3 tips for the whole family to bring it back down</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223190/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Orlando receives funding from Office of eSafety Commissioner for funded research on online safety for 10–13 year olds. </span></em></p>Is it reasonable to occasionally inspect a 13- or 14-year-old’s device, or does this undermine a new sense of privacy at this stage?Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Digital Literacy and Digital Wellbeing, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2191582023-12-17T13:41:47Z2023-12-17T13:41:47ZWhy the American technological war against China could backfire<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/why-the-american-technological-war-against-china-could-backfire" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-15/us-will-tighten-curbs-on-china-s-access-to-advanced-chip-tech">technological war</a> waged by the United States <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/us/politics/biden-ban-china-investment.html">against China</a> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2023-09-29/are-us-technology-sanctions-against-china-backfiring">has the potential to backfire</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/magazine/semiconductor-chips-us-china.html">supercharging China’s creation of an independent computer chip industry</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUfjtKtkS2U&t=16s">that would directly compete with American manufacturers</a>. </p>
<p>U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has employed <a href="https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/us-lawmakers-target-china-with-export-controls-sanctions-bills-1.2011207">increasingly restrictive sanctions</a> to prevent American and allied chip manufacturers from selling their most advanced products to China.</p>
<p>These restrictions are aimed at <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2022/12/us-chip-ban-wont-short-circuit-chinas-military-power/">preventing China’s military</a> from <a href="https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2023/08/30/2099944/">developing more sophisticated weapons</a>. However, the People’s Liberation Army uses very few high-tech chips. The tech war seems designed to cripple China’s overall technological development and, by extension, its economic growth and prosperity. </p>
<h2>Cautionary tale</h2>
<p>Ongoing <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/west-world-tour-huawei-china-telecom/">American efforts</a> to cripple the Chinese telecom company Huawei may serve as a cautionary tale for the U.S.</p>
<p>American technological sanctions damaged the company and its role as a leading global producer of cellphones, but Huawei has <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/01/chinas-huawei-looks-to-ports-factories-to-rebuild-sales/#:%7E:text=Huawei%20is%20reinventing%20itself%20as,sanctions%20crushed%20its%20smartphone%20brand.">reinvented itself</a> as a cloud computing network company. </p>
<p>It has also re-entered the cellphone market, introducing its <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Huawei-Mate-60-Pro-teardown-reveals-47-Chinese-parts-in-phone">Mate 60 phone that boasts Chinese-designed and manufactured seven-nanometre</a> computer chips. American tech restrictions were meant to keep China stuck at manufacturing no more than 14-nanometre chips, keeping it at least eight to 10 years behind U.S. technology.</p>
<p>The accomplishment means that China is gaining ground on the U.S. </p>
<p>Recently, Huawei introduced <a href="https://www.gizchina.com/2023/10/31/former-tsmc-ibm-exec-reveals-huaweis-capability-to-produce-cutting-edge-5nm-chips/">a computer with five-nanometre chip</a>, further closing the gap with the West. </p>
<p>Western observers <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/04/technology/tech-cold-war-chips.html">have argued that the production of high-end microchips</a> requires international co-operation. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08myo1UdTZ8&t=12s">The Netherlands’ ASML</a> is the only company with the advanced lithography equipment needed to make three-nanometre chips. ASML built its machine using technologies from about seven other countries and took 20 years to get to market. Therefore, China is unlikely to succeed if it’s relying only on itself to create independent capacity.</p>
<p>However, the basic understanding of how lithography works is well-known. China has pushed its existing ASML equipment beyond its original capabilities and is pioneering an <a href="https://medium.com/@thechinaacademy/china-may-be-constructing-euv-lithography-machines-on-a-massive-scale-da796ea1af73">innovative approach to lithography</a> that could see China mass-producing high-end semiconductors in the future.</p>
<h2>Chinese education prowess</h2>
<p>Most importantly, scientific knowledge cannot be contained and China has made extraordinary gains in its educational system. </p>
<p>Chinese high schoolers in four affluent provinces <a href="https://archive.ph/3KGuE">score the highest in the world in reading, science and mathematics</a>. According to <em>Times Higher Education</em>, Chinese universities are <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/china-subject-ratings-2021-china-outperforms-rest-world">“outperforming institutions in the rest of the world in the vast majority of disciplines</a>.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/engineering">The <em>U.S. News & World Report</em> has ranked six of the top 10 (and 11 of the top 20) engineering schools in the world</a>, and they’re in China, with Tsinghua University in Beijing in first place. Only two of the top 10 are American. <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2023/09/china-dominates-in-high-quality-natural-science-research/">China is also projected to produce 77,000 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) graduates by 2025</a>, more than double that of the U.S. </p>
<p>China has been saddled with the stereotype that <a href="https://hbr.org/2014/03/why-china-cant-innovate">it cannot innovate</a>. But in 2022, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-01705-7">China overtook the U.S. for the first time</a> as the country or territory publishing the most research articles in prestigious natural science journals. </p>
<p>China closed the gap remarkably quickly, <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2023/09/china-dominates-in-high-quality-natural-science-research/">increasing its share of scientific articles</a> by 21 per cent since 2021 and 152 per cent since 2016. </p>
<p>According to Japan’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/11/china-overtakes-the-us-in-scientific-research-output">China published the highest number of scientific research papers annually between 2018 and 2020</a>, and had 27.2 per cent of the world’s top one per cent of the most frequently cited papers, compared to 24.9 per cent for the U.S. </p>
<p>A survey done by the <a href="https://www.aspi.org.au/report/critical-technology-tracker">Australian Strategic Policy Institute</a> determined that China is leading in 37 of 44 cutting-edge technologies, including nanoscale materials and synthetic biology. China is also <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2023/09/china-using-industrial-robots-at-12x-us-rate/">using industrial robots at 12 times the rate</a> as the U.S. </p>
<h2>Cannot be cut off</h2>
<p>This is not a country that <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-sanctions-drive-chinese-firms-to-advance-ai-without-latest-chips-f6aed67f">can be contained by cutting it off from technology</a>. When it comes to the use and production of knowledge-based industries, China has more advantages than any other country in the world. </p>
<p>American actions will create a new generation of Chinese high-tech firms that will compete directly with the U.S. and western businesses from whom they used to buy their products. These firms will produce more affordable products than their western counterparts, and <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2022/11/blocked-in-the-west-huawei-eyes-emerging-markets/">could dominate technological infrastructure</a> in the Global South.</p>
<p>Chinese electric vehicles are the <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Electric-cars-in-China/China-s-GAC-breaks-1-000-km-range-barrier-with-new-EV">most advanced</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/business/china-electric-vehicles.html">in the world</a>, and <a href="https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/byd-seagull-ev-cheap-electric-car/">spreading to the rest of the globe</a>. Even as direct U.S.-China trade has declined, <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2023/08/29/protectionism-is-failing-to-achieve-its-goals-and-threatens-the-future-of-critical-industries">China’s overall importance to world trade has increased</a>. </p>
<p>Over the past year, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-dan-wang.html">numerous pundits</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/26/opinion/china-economy-xi-jinping.html">have declared</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/business/china-economy-safety-net.html">that China’s economic collapse</a> is imminent. There’s no question <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2023/11/chinas-economic-miracle-turns-to-fiscal-crisis/">China is experiencing economic headwinds</a> as it deals with deflationary pressures linked to real estate, high local government debt and reduced consumer confidence. </p>
<h2>No collapse imminent</h2>
<p>But China’s critics have been predicting its collapse for decades. China keeps confounding them, and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/10/17/china-economy-optimists-property/?tpcc=recirc_trending062921">it probably will once again</a>. <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/imf-upgrades-chinas-2023-2024-gdp-growth-forecasts-2023-11-07/">The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has adjusted China’s predicted GDP growth rate upwards for 2023 to 5.4 per cent, and expects 4.6 per cent growth in 2024</a>. </p>
<p>The IMF expects China’s growth to continue slowing in the future, but this forecast doesn’t account for the technological potential that the country is unlocking. </p>
<p>China may be using the present debt crisis <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2023/08/property-shakeout-beijings-tool-to-fight-fiefdoms/">to redirect domestic investment</a> away from a volatile property market and towards a productive and sustainable high tech economy. </p>
<p>If so, American efforts to stifle China may have created the conditions needed to ensure its success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun Narine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Chinese technology advancements cannot be contained, and the country is increasingly an education and research powerhouse.Shaun Narine, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, St. Thomas University (Canada)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2187562023-11-30T09:06:25Z2023-11-30T09:06:25ZHow smartphones weaken attention spans in children and adults<p>It’s no secret that smartphones and other digital devices control and consume our attention, both among adults and young people. This can be illustrated with three different, but very common scenarios:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A group of teenagers are sat beside one another. Each of them is staring down into a screen. </p></li>
<li><p>Commuters on public transport are hunched over their phones, scrolling infinitely through social media or playing an addictive game. Very few people are reading a book, or even looking out of the window.</p></li>
<li><p>You are finishing a presentation for work on the computer. An email notification comes in from a colleague with a link to a short, amusing video. The link takes you to social media site which then offers you another video, followed by another. Before you know it, an hour has gone by and the presentation remains unfinished. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Trapped in an app</h2>
<p>The three examples above demonstrate how mobile applications are designed to trap our attention. Most apps work like this because because they are free. Instead of charging the user, they make money by harvesting data and advertising. The more time we spend looking at the screen, the more data and advertising we consume.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.ine.es/prensa/tich_2022.pdf">data from 2022 published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute</a>, 40% of children aged 11 have a phone. This number jumps up to 75% at 12 years old and then to 90% at age 14. The apps that they use on these phones are the same as those used by adults, and they respond to the industrial logic of the internet: they provide things quickly, efficiently, and with minimum effort for the user. </p>
<p>Children today are digital natives, meaning they have never known life without internet access. They have been raised on clicks, jumping from content to content without a second thought. In the words of the philosopher <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byung-Chul_Han">Byung-Chul Han</a> in his 2021 book <a href="https://books.google.es/books/about/Non_things.html?id=q_qxzgEACAAJ&redir_esc=y"><em>Non-things</em></a>, this kind of constant stimulation means that “we quickly come to need new stimuli. We get used to seeing reality as a source of stimuli and surprises.” We struggle to focus our attention on any one thing and this “tsunami of information agitates our cognitive system.”</p>
<h2>Changes in the brain</h2>
<p>In this sense, loss of attention is related to a decline in our ability to concentrate. As <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_G._Carr">Nicholas Carr</a> pointed out in his 2010 book <a href="https://www.google.es/books/edition/The_Shallows/AsZ1R3l96FEC?hl=en&gbpv=0"><em>The Shallows: what the internet is doing to our brains</em></a>, the brain changes according to our experiences. Books, for example, can train the brain to deeply focus its attention on one task, while mobile devices encourage us to peck and hover over the surface of things without fully grasping them.</p>
<p>When we receive information in large quantities, <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-critical-thinking-isnt-enough-to-beat-information-overload-we-need-to-learn-critical-ignoring-198549">it stops being meaningful</a>. When faced with an overwhelming amount of it, our brains react by blocking the information, but the discarded content does not simply evaporate from our minds. Instead it lingers, preventing us from figuring out what we are interested in, and limiting our attention span.</p>
<h2>Impacts on the way we learn</h2>
<p>Mobile phone addiction and the <a href="https://blogs.uoc.edu/elearning-innovation-center/es/los-jovenes-y-los-contenidos-digitales-una-relacion-en-movimiento/">way young people learn</a> are both directly connected to the concept of <em>[mind wandering]</em>(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131522001877). An excess of information inputs makes us switch off and lose attention, and this can be damaging in the long term.</p>
<p>In order to recover attention, the brain needs to take a break and <a href="https://theconversation.com/hacia-una-ecologia-de-la-atencion-necesitamos-espacios-libres-de-estimulos-161229">find time and space where it can be free from constant noise</a>. Adults – who generally have better willpower, critical thinking skills, perception of time and organisation – can make the effort to find these much needed spaces to focus attention.</p>
<p>Children, on the other hand, have not yet acquired these behaviour strategies, and run the risk of never recovering their attention spans. If we give children and teenagers access to digital devices before they have developed these skills, we give their attention free rein to wander. It will then become harder and harder for them to focus on a task for the necessary amount of time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Las personas firmantes no son asalariadas, ni consultoras, ni poseen acciones, ni reciben financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y han declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado anteriormente.</span></em></p>Children are not equipped to deal with the information overload that comes from using digital devicesIgnacio Blanco-Alfonso, Catedrático de Periodismo de la Universidad CEU San Pablo (Madrid, España), Universidad CEU San PabloMaría Solano Altaba, Profesora de la Facultad de Humanidades y CC. Comunicación Universidad CEU San Pablo, Universidad CEU San PabloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2171522023-11-22T17:05:14Z2023-11-22T17:05:14ZWhen to give your child their first mobile phone – and how to keep them safe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561038/original/file-20231122-15-lsw1by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=411%2C9%2C5819%2C4138&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/content-african-american-teenage-girl-lying-2081784520">Pressmaster/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I spend my career researching young people and the internet: what they do online, what they think about it and how their views differ to those of their parents. </p>
<p>I often get questions from parents about their children’s internet use. One of the most common is when to get their child a mobile phone, as well as how to keep them safe when they have one. Here are my answers to some key questions. </p>
<h2>How old should my child be when they get their first phone?</h2>
<p>I’m afraid I often disappoint parents in my answer to this question by not giving them a definite number. But the key here is what your child is going to use the phone for – and when might be suitable for that individual child. </p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/255852/childrens-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2023.pdf">2023 report</a> by UK communications regulator Ofcom, 20% of three year olds now own a mobile phone. But this phone may just be used for taking pictures, playing simple games and supervised video calls with family. </p>
<p>The more pertinent question is when children should have their own fully-connected phone, which they can use unsupervised to contact others online. </p>
<p>When a child is primary school age, it’s highly likely that they will be used to adult supervision in most aspects of their life. They will either be at school, at home, with friends and trusted adults or with other family members. </p>
<p>Their need to contact a distant adult may not be that great – but you will want to think about what the specific needs of your own child might be.</p>
<p>Typically the transition from primary school to secondary is when children might be more distant from home, or be involved in school activities or socialising with friends where being able to contact home becomes more important. I have spoken to plenty of young people who talk about starting secondary school as the point where they first had their own phone. </p>
<h2>How do I make sure they use a phone safely?</h2>
<p>First of all, it’s important that if your child is going online – at whatever age and regardless of the device they’re using – you have a conversation with them about online safety. </p>
<p>Parents have a role to play in educating their children and making them aware of the risks that come with being online, as well as being mindful that most online experiences <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-children-dont-talk-to-adults-about-the-problems-they-encounter-online-202304">are not harmful</a>. </p>
<p>I have carried out <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-88634-9">extensive research</a> with young people on online harms. As part of this research, I and colleagues developed a number of <a href="https://www.headstartkernow.org.uk/digital-resilience/parent-digital-offer/">resources for parents</a>, put together with the help of over 1,000 young people. </p>
<p>What these young people say the most is they want to know who to turn to when they need help. They want to be confident they will receive support, not a telling off or confiscation of their phone. This means that a key first step is to reassure your child that they can come to you with any problems they encounter and you will help them without judgment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-children-dont-talk-to-adults-about-the-problems-they-encounter-online-202304">Why children don't talk to adults about the problems they encounter online</a>
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<p>It’s also important to discuss with your child what they can and can’t do with their device. This could mean, for instance, setting ground rules about which apps they can have installed on their phone, and when they should stop using their phone at the end of the day. </p>
<p>You should also explore the privacy settings for the apps that your child uses, in order to ensure that they cannot be contacted by strangers or access inappropriate content. The NSPCC <a href="https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/parental-controls/">has resources</a> for parents on how to use privacy settings. </p>
<h2>Should I check my child’s phone?</h2>
<p>Sometimes parents ask me about whether they should be able to check a child’s device – either by physically looking at the phone or by using “safetytech”, software on another device that can access the communications on the child’s phone. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Father and son looking at mobile phone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561044/original/file-20231122-23-pkqa2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561044/original/file-20231122-23-pkqa2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561044/original/file-20231122-23-pkqa2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561044/original/file-20231122-23-pkqa2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561044/original/file-20231122-23-pkqa2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561044/original/file-20231122-23-pkqa2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561044/original/file-20231122-23-pkqa2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Open conversations about phone use are key.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/father-son-using-smart-phone-outdoor-2084154532">Khorzhevska/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I believe it’s important that this is also something you discuss with your child. Trust is important to ensure that your child comes to you with any online issues, so if you want to monitor their phone, talk to them about it rather than doing so covertly. </p>
<p>It seems reasonable parental supervision to be accessing a child’s device when they are of primary age, in the same way a parent would check with another child’s parent before agreeing to let them visit their home. </p>
<p>However, as your child gets older, they might not want their parent to see all of their messages and online interactions. The <a href="https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/">UN Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> clearly states that a child does have a right to privacy. </p>
<h2>Should I track my child’s location through their phone?</h2>
<p>I have spoken to some families that track each other’s devices in an open and transparent manner, and this is a decision for the family. However, I have also spoken to children who find it very creepy that a teenage friend is tracked by their parents.</p>
<p>The question here is whether parents are reassuring themselves that their child is safe – or whether they want to know what they are doing without them knowing. I had a particularly memorable conversation with someone who told me their friend was extremely upset because their daughter had changed device and so they could no longer track her. When I asked how old the daughter was, they said she was 22. </p>
<p>It’s also worth considering whether tech like this actually provides false reassurance. It may allow parents to know where their child is, but not necessarily whether they are safe. </p>
<p>As with monitoring a child’s phone, it is worth reflecting upon whether a surveillance approach creates the ideal conditions for them to come to you with problems, or whether this is more likely to be fostered by open conversations and an environment of mutual trust.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Phippen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Have conversations with your child about online safety – and reassure them you will help them with any problems they encounter online.Andy Phippen, Professor of IT Ethics and Digital Rights, Bournemouth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2175642023-11-14T00:21:28Z2023-11-14T00:21:28ZOptus has revealed the cause of the major outage. Could it happen again?<p>Around 4.05am on Wednesday November 8 2023, Optus suffered a nationwide network outage lasting well into the evening, more than 12 hours later.</p>
<p>Now, Optus has released some information on what happened, <a href="https://www.optus.com.au/notices/outage-response">stating</a> “we now know what the cause was and have taken steps to ensure it will not happen again”.</p>
<p>As a telecommunications expert, I believe we should have no confidence in this statement, because the poorly worded explanation leaves many questions unanswered.</p>
<p>Could a similar outage happen again? We don’t know – but there are ways to make it less likely.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/optus-blackout-explained-what-is-a-deep-network-outage-and-what-may-have-caused-it-217266">Optus blackout explained: what is a ‘deep network’ outage and what may have caused it?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How did the outage unfold?</h2>
<p>The Optus outage caused all services to go offline. Landlines, mobile phones, home internet, small business and enterprise, and cloud connections all dropped out.</p>
<p>The most serious impact of the outage was that Optus landlines <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast-episode/federal-government-review-to-scrutinise-optus-failure/8jqd9y87o">couldn’t dial 000</a> and Optus mobile phones were unable to connect to the 000 emergency call service unless the connection occurred through Telstra or Vodafone infrastructure.</p>
<p>More than 10 million Optus customers were affected by the outage that brought Melbourne’s <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/metro-trains-melbourne-stop-working-communications-outage-updates/7d3b22a3-9973-4926-925f-7a68e242e734">trains to a halt</a> and left Optus’s small business customers unable to carry out <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-11/optus-outage-raises-concerns-around-australias-cashless-society/103091402">EFTPOS transactions</a>.</p>
<h2>So, what went wrong with Optus?</h2>
<p>Optus has revealed that a “routine software upgrade” triggered a cascading failure in the Optus <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/network-layer/internet-protocol/">internet protocol</a> (IP) core network – the central backbone of their network that authorises device access and provides customer management.</p>
<p>Optus has provided a brief answer on <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/optus-has-revealed-the-cause-of-last-weeks-massive-12-hour-outage/ruhlpn9a1">why the entire network went offline</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“These routing information changes propagated through multiple layers in our network and exceeded preset safety levels on key routers which could not handle these. This resulted in those routers disconnecting from the Optus IP Core network to protect themselves.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Routing information is used to find a path from one location on the internet to another – a router is a device that manages the traffic flows.</p>
<p>The explanation provided by Optus points to human error. This confirms what industry experts <a href="https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/expert-reaction-optus-network-outage">suspected had happened</a>. The resulting flood of “routing information changes” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/08/optus-network-outage-cause-what-happened-explained">overwhelmed</a> key routers in the core network causing them to disconnect, thereby bringing the entire network to a halt.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-core-network-that-was-crucial-to-the-optus-outage-217375">Explainer: what is the 'core network' that was crucial to the Optus outage?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559186/original/file-20231113-21-h5ug4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of a white wifi router on a desk with a person working on laptop in the backround" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559186/original/file-20231113-21-h5ug4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559186/original/file-20231113-21-h5ug4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559186/original/file-20231113-21-h5ug4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559186/original/file-20231113-21-h5ug4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559186/original/file-20231113-21-h5ug4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559186/original/file-20231113-21-h5ug4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559186/original/file-20231113-21-h5ug4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Your internet router is a home version of a device that manages data traffic flow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/selective-focus-router-internet-on-working-1807512106">Teerasan Phutthigorn/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Should the outage have been preventable?</h2>
<p>Outages of this kind are not uncommon – human error has led to major companies going offline in the past.</p>
<p>But an <em>entire</em> telecommunications network going offline is unusual. The network should be designed in such a way that redundancy (backups) and resiliency are built in from the outset.</p>
<p>Before a software upgrade occurs, there should be modelling, testing and several layers of sign-off.</p>
<p>In case something goes wrong, there should be infrastructure and system redundancy. An automated or manual procedure should exist to ensure the redundant systems become operational within a few minutes. </p>
<p>In 2021, <a href="https://blog.cloudflare.com/october-2021-facebook-outage/">Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram</a> disappeared from the internet for roughly six hours due to an incorrect routing configuration.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/business/news/update-about-the-october-4th-outage">Meta’s lengthy and informative statement</a> at the time provides an example of the level of detail that we should expect Optus to provide.</p>
<p>With the Optus outage and similar incidents at other companies that have led to major outages, in nearly every case the outage was preventable and highlighted deficiencies in the organisation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-crisis-optus-appears-to-be-ignoring-communications-101-217265">In a crisis, Optus appears to be ignoring Communications 101</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What should Optus do now?</h2>
<p>The national outage means the Optus network is <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-09/experts-say-optus-outage-could-happen-again/103086826">not fit for purpose</a>.</p>
<p>It can be assumed Optus has a number of deficiencies, such as problems with engineering capability, testing, procedures, network redundancy and resilience.</p>
<p>Optus states they are “committed to learning from what has occurred” and will continue to work to “increase the resilience” of their network.</p>
<p>For this to lead to an effective outcome, Optus will need to carry out a review and put in place new processes, infrastructure and systems to prevent a similar outage in the future.</p>
<h2>How do we know a similar outage won’t happen again?</h2>
<p>We don’t.</p>
<p>We need enhanced government regulation of the Australian telecommunications network operators to provide improved visibility of the redundancy and resilience of their networks. The Senate has <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/OptusNetworkOutage">commenced an inquiry</a> into the Optus outage.</p>
<p>Telecommunications is an essential service. Australians should be able to connect to the 000 emergency call service at all times. Reliable access to medical services, EFTPOS and the internet are vital. </p>
<p>If necessary, penalties should be introduced into the <a href="https://legislation.gov.au/Details/C2023C00371">Telecommunications Act 1997</a> to ensure telecommunications network operators implement and maintain “best practice” related to network operation, redundancy and resilience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217564/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark A Gregory does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Optus says the unprecedented outage last week was caused by a ‘routine software upgrade’. An expert explains why this points to more serious problems with the network.Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172662023-11-08T04:13:48Z2023-11-08T04:13:48ZOptus blackout explained: what is a ‘deep network’ outage and what may have caused it?<p>Optus customers woke up this morning to find they were unable to get their social media fix, and they weren’t happy. Around 4am AEDT, customers started to report an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-08/optus-outage-live-blog/103076996">inability to access</a> both mobile and home internet services.</p>
<p>Optus advised it was investigating the issue, with <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-rba-lifts-interest-rates-to-4-35-per-cent-pm-meets-with-chinese-premier-20231107-p5eiag.htmly">reports emerging around</a> midday of some services coming back online. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Optus Help post from X, formerly Twitter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558260/original/file-20231108-25-hgyz4h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558260/original/file-20231108-25-hgyz4h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558260/original/file-20231108-25-hgyz4h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558260/original/file-20231108-25-hgyz4h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558260/original/file-20231108-25-hgyz4h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558260/original/file-20231108-25-hgyz4h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558260/original/file-20231108-25-hgyz4h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Optus Help/X</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Around 12.30pm, Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin told radio 2GB the <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/optus-outage-when-will-it-be-fixed/4b74342e-9b2a-4c0f-8125-a28be7facd83">path to restoration</a> had been found, nearly nine hours after the blackout began.</p>
<p>The outage, one of the largest in Australia’s history, sent alarm bells ringing across the country. With <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/08/optus-phone-and-internet-outage-affects-millions-across-australia">a number of</a> smaller mobile network providers reselling the Optus network, including Aussie Broadband, Amaysim, CatchConnect, Coles Mobile, Dodo, Moose Mobile <a href="https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/mobile_carriers">and more</a>, the impact was felt far and wide.</p>
<p>As the morning progressed, the impact grew. Health and emergency services were unable to communicate, <a href="https://7news.com.au/travel/metro-trains/melbourne-train-network-shuts-down-due-to-optus-outage-for-30-minutes-c-12477906">trains in Melbourne</a> were brought to a halt and small businesses across the nation were unable to use Optus EFTPOS. </p>
<p>Fortunately, Optus users could still use roaming to <a href="https://amta.org.au/calling-triple-zero-from-your-mobile/">call 000</a> if they were within the coverage of other telecommunication service providers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-crisis-optus-appears-to-be-ignoring-communications-101-217265">In a crisis, Optus appears to be ignoring Communications 101</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is a ‘deep network’ problem?</h2>
<p>Earlier today Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland described the incident as a “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/optus-outage-likely-a-deep-network-issue/103076946">deep network”</a> problem.</p>
<p>Telecommunications networks include three components: the core, transit and access networks. You can think of the <a href="https://www.tatacommunications.com/knowledge-base/network-core-network-explained/">core network</a> as the systems that allow customers’ devices to connect to and access phone and internet services. </p>
<p>The transit network connects the core to the access networks using optical fibre cables. The access networks include the local infrastructure found in suburbs – including the mobile phone towers.</p>
<p>Core network outages can occur when equipment or cables fail, when there is a software fault, or when a cyberattack occurs.</p>
<p>The most common reason for a software fault is when a patch or update is applied and it has an unintended outcome, such as causing one or more of the core network systems to fail.</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<h2>What could have caused this?</h2>
<p>Although Optus hasn’t give any indications as to the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-08/optus-phone-internet-service-down-across-australia/103076700">exact cause of the outage</a>, Bayer Rosmarin <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/08/optus-phone-and-internet-outage-affects-millions-across-australia">said it was</a> unlikely a cyberattack was the cause:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no indication that it is anything to do with spyware at this stage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At the same time, experts have noted mobile cell towers are working, and there seems to be no damage to the underlying fibre optic network. This means we can probably rule out an issue in the transit or access networks.</p>
<p>The scale and speed with which the impact hit (and the somewhat specific timing) indicates the culprit was likely a problem in the core network.</p>
<p>It’s very possible a software or system update was responsible. Such updates or changes often happen out of business hours to have minimal impact. They typically involve a short period of downtime – a “scheduled outage” – which goes unnoticed by customers. </p>
<p>It could be, as some <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/fears-optus-outage-was-a-planned-upgrade-at-4am-that-went-catastrophically-wrong/news-story/cd25723a64980982bf70411c75472baa">reports have speculated</a>, the Optus outage was an unplanned consequence of a planned system change, such as a planned update or outage. When these processes go wrong, they can go spectacularly wrong! </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558236/original/file-20231108-19-i63c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A radio and 5G tower against a blue sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558236/original/file-20231108-19-i63c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558236/original/file-20231108-19-i63c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558236/original/file-20231108-19-i63c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558236/original/file-20231108-19-i63c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558236/original/file-20231108-19-i63c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558236/original/file-20231108-19-i63c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/558236/original/file-20231108-19-i63c16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The mobile network distributed via cell towers provides both phone calls and data to customers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/radio-communication-cell-towers-on-blue-1971141260">Daria Nipot/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As for how such a fault may happen, it is likely due to human error (especially since 4am is a time you might expect engineers to be carrying out patch work). However, it could also be a result of other factors, such as a hardware fault that then causes a software failure. </p>
<p>Another possibility is a fault in an accounting or user management system, such as no longer being able to attribute costs or verify users’ identities properly.</p>
<p>Issues in back-end billing and management systems can generate a cascade of failures throughout the rest of a network. In such cases, a simple bug in the system can impact everyone connected to the network.</p>
<h2>How will this be fixed?</h2>
<p>Optus engineers will be actively investigating the cause of the outage. You might be imagining someone scurrying around with wires in their hands trying to find the one that isn’t plugged in – but in reality this will be a lengthy process that involves examining various systems and software configurations to find the culprit.</p>
<p>For Optus, the hard work will continue after the fix is in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again. And perhaps an even more difficult challenge will be convincing the public this was an isolated incident – one that has once again highlighted how vulnerable our massively connected systems are to (even single) <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/business-spectator/news-story/preventing-the-mayhem-of-a-major-telstra-outage/6b59b91ae3865637490da2813663adc9">points of failure</a>.</p>
<p>Speaking on 3AW Afternoons, <a href="https://www.3aw.com.au/optus-ceo-looking-at-compensating-customers-as-services-are-restored-following-unprecedented-outage/">Bayer Rosmarin said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are looking at what we can do to say thank you to our customers for their patience.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Optus is likely to pay compensation to customers. For residential customers this may be in the form of a reduced bill. </p>
<p>For business customers, the compensation would be linked with their service-level agreements. In other words, the specific penalties for Optus will be based on individual agreements it has made with various parties using or sharing its services.</p>
<p>Beyond this, it’s highly likely today’s events have dealt a massive blow to Optus’s reputation – especially when considered alongside last year’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-optus-hacker-claims-theyve-deleted-the-data-heres-what-experts-want-you-to-know-191494">Optus data breach</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/optus-says-it-needed-to-keep-identity-data-for-six-years-but-did-it-really-191498">Optus says it needed to keep identity data for six years. But did it really?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Optus suffered one of the largest telecommunications outages in Australian history today. Here are the factors that can cause such events.Paul Haskell-Dowland, Professor of Cyber Security Practice, Edith Cowan UniversityMark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT UniversityMohiuddin Ahmed, Senior Lecturer of Computing and Security, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2136822023-10-16T14:10:38Z2023-10-16T14:10:38ZTraditional farming knowledge should be stored for future use: the technology to do this is available<p>Indigenous knowledge and traditional practices have played a critical <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/574381468765625385/pdf/multi0page.pdf">role</a> in development all over the world. For centuries, various disciplines ranging from medicine to biodiversity conservation have drawn on these resources. </p>
<p>On the African continent, societies have been guided by a wide range of beliefs, norms, customs and procedures in managing their ecological and social systems.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://repository.embuni.ac.ke/handle/123456789/4152">cultural values</a> and social practices have helped communities achieve sustainable agriculture. These include traditional practices in <a href="https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/83308">food preservation</a>, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ldr.3395">weather monitoring and forecasting</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666049021000566">crop production</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, indigenous knowledge of agricultural practices is rapidly disappearing, because it is not being <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Emmanuel-Attoh-3/publication/352197647_Indigenous_knowledge_and_climate_change_adaptation_in_Africa_a_systematic_review/links/60be743792851cb13d88b9b9/Indigenous-knowledge-and-climate-change-adaptation-in-Africa-a-systematic-review.pdf">preserved</a>. One possible solution is digitalisation. This involves using modern information and communication technologies to capture, store and share farmers’ traditional wisdom and practices.</p>
<p>I conducted a <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/ejc-jpad_v57_n4_a5">literature review</a> to explore the benefits and challenges of preserving indigenous agricultural knowledge in a digital form in Africa.</p>
<p>I found that mobile phones, computers, cameras, scanners and voice recorders were useful tools for this purpose. But the process must involve the local communities that use these practices. They are the creators, guardians and sharers of indigenous knowledge through their lived experiences and practices.</p>
<p>Their participation is critical for a number of reasons. One is that they would improve the quality and accuracy of knowledge stored in digital form. Another is that they would avoid errors or misunderstandings that might arise from <a href="https://rb.gy/vsahl">language or cultural barriers</a>.</p>
<p>Digital technologies can enable wider use of <a href="https://rb.gy/qd1q1">indigenous knowledge</a>. They can promote better management of agricultural resources and preserve traditional practices. </p>
<p>I also identified several challenges that hinder the process. Policy gaps, <a href="https://core.ac.uk/reader/188123510">network connectivity issues</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0833-5.ch010">high cost</a> of digital tools were among them.</p>
<p>The findings of this study could inform policies and interventions to record and share indigenous knowledge in Africa.</p>
<h2>Digitalisation: what’s missing?</h2>
<p>Digital technologies are already widely used in Africa, particularly among smallholder farmers. They are used in <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b180/025358c0b38123ea1b34bad11cc0761123ca.pdf">irrigation farming</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031158">precision farming</a>, drought predictions, micro-climate monitoring, and crop disease risk assessments. Efficiency, productivity and functionality are among the claimed benefits.</p>
<p>But my study found little evidence of indigenous agricultural knowledge being preserved. Some countries are making progress, however. South Africa has developed a system to document indigenous knowledge. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are also developing and using <a href="https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/574381468765625385/pdf/multi0page.pdf">knowledge management initiatives</a>. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0340035216681326">In Ghana</a>, people are recording traditional knowledge of forest food and medicine. </p>
<p>More needs to be done. </p>
<h2>How it could be done</h2>
<p>Indigenous agricultural knowledge can be collected, processed, stored and shared in various formats. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-0833-5.ch010">Technologies</a> such as smartphones, voice recorders and video cameras can <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dennis-Ocholla/publication/329359896_Information_and_Communication_Technology_Tools_for_Managing_Indigenous_Knowledge_in_KwaZulu-Natal_Province_South_Africa/links/5c0421e092851c63cab5cb99/Information-and-Communication-Technology-Tools-for-Managing-Indigenous-Knowledge-in-KwaZulu-Natal-Province-South-Africa.pdf">capture texts, videos</a>, images and voice narrations about indigenous plants and traditional agricultural practices. </p>
<p>These could cover information on crop production systems, food preservation and livestock management. Weather and seasonal forecasting would be another area to cover. Management of resources like soil and water would also be useful to record. </p>
<p>The study found that databases of these practices and information could be a great resource for farmers. They could share their experiences of applying indigenous practices on various digital platforms. Other users could provide feedback. </p>
<p>My research also showed that the internet would be a valuable tool. Information could be shared on <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1667">platforms</a> such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok.</p>
<h2>Hurdles to overcome</h2>
<p>The study identified several challenges facing the digitalisation of indigenous agricultural knowledge. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Dennis-Ocholla/publication/329359896_Information_and_Communication_Technology_Tools_for_Managing_Indigenous_Knowledge_in_KwaZulu-Natal_Province_South_Africa/links/5c0421e092851c63cab5cb99/Information-and-Communication-Technology-Tools-for-Managing-Indigenous-Knowledge-in-KwaZulu-Natal-Province-South-Africa.pdf">Affordability</a> of smartphones is sometimes an issue for smallholder farmers. And connectivity is sometimes poor in rural or semi-urban areas. </p>
<p>Governments could make strategic investments to overcome these challenges. </p>
<p>I argue in my paper that the application of indigenous agricultural knowledge practices could help address declining agricultural productivity on the continent. </p>
<p>In addition, I argue in favour of promoting indigenous knowledge of agricultural practices to address social challenges. Indigenous knowledge has a contribution to make to sustainable agricultural productivity and food systems. It also offers insights that may be useful for conserving natural resources such as water, forests and land.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213682/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mourine Sarah Achieng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Digitalisation offers a way to preserve indigenous knowledge of agricultural practices and connect new generations of farmers to knowledge and wisdom from the past.Mourine Sarah Achieng, Post Doctoral Fellow, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2149562023-10-05T03:34:32Z2023-10-05T03:34:32ZShould you charge your phone overnight? Will ‘overcharging’ make it explode? Common battery myths debunked<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552250/original/file-20231005-25-od3clj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C44%2C2466%2C1710&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the world of lithium-ion batteries, smartphones take centre stage. Yet they’ve also sparked an ongoing debate: does prolonged (or overnight) charging wreak havoc on your battery?</p>
<p>A number of factors determine a phone battery’s lifespan, including its manufacturing age and its chemical age. The latter refers to the battery’s gradual degradation due to variables such as fluctuations in temperature, charging and discharging patterns and overall usage.</p>
<p>Over time, the chemical ageing of <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=8720247">lithium-ion batteries</a> reduces charge capacity, battery lifespan and performance.</p>
<p><a href="https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT208387">According</a> to Apple:</p>
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<p>A normal [iPhone] battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles when operating under normal conditions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620354342">Research has found</a> a 2019 smartphone battery could, on average, undergo 850 full charge/discharge cycles before dropping to below 80% capacity. This means only <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7299844">80%</a> of the initial battery capacity remains after about two to three years of use. At this point the battery begins to deplete noticeably faster. </p>
<h2>Should you charge your phone overnight?</h2>
<p>Most new-generation smartphones will <a href="https://au.anker.com/blogs/chargers/how-long-does-it-take-for-a-phone-to-charge-from-0-100">take</a> somewhere between 30 minutes <a href="https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-s23-charging-speed-3287167/">and two hours</a> to charge fully.</p>
<p>Charging times vary depending on your device’s battery capacity – larger capacities require more time – as well as <a href="https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-409-charging-lithium-ion">how much power</a> your charger supplies. </p>
<p>Charging your phone overnight is <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7299844">not only unnecessary</a>, it also accelerates battery ageing. Full charging cycles (going from <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42341-021-00357-6">0%–100%)</a> should be avoided to maximise your battery’s lifespan.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.samsung.com/ae/support/mobile-devices/battery-protection-feature-in-samsung-s23-series/">Samsung</a> says:</p>
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<p>charging your battery up to 100% too frequently may negatively impact the overall lifespan of the battery.</p>
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<p>Similarly, keeping <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208710">iPhones</a> at full charge for extended periods may compromise their battery health.</p>
<p>Rather than a full top-up, it’s recommended to charge your battery up to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42341-021-00357-6">80%</a> and not allow it to dip under <a href="https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-can-i-optimise-and-extend-the-battery-life-on-my-samsung-galaxy-smartphone/">20%</a>. </p>
<h2>Can your phone be overcharged?</h2>
<p>In theory, lithium-ion batteries can be overcharged. This can lead to <a href="https://esa.act.gov.au/be-emergency-ready/lithium-ion-batteries">safety risks</a> such as the battery overheating and catching fire. The good news is most modern phones have an in-built protection that automatically stops the battery from charging further than 100% – preventing any damage from overcharging. </p>
<p>However, each time a battery drops to 99% (due to apps running in the background) it will “<a href="https://whatthetech.tv/what-is-battery-trickle-and-why-is-it-making-your-phone-die/">trickle charge</a>”: it will start charging again to maintain a fully charged state.</p>
<p>Trickle charging can wear a battery down over time. That’s why many manufacturers have features to regulate it. Apple’s <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT210512">iPhones</a> offer functionality to delay charging past 80%. <a href="https://www.samsung.com/ae/support/mobile-devices/battery-protection-feature-in-samsung-s23-series/">Samsung’s Galaxy</a> phones provide the option to cap the charge at 85%.</p>
<h2>Can your phone explode from charging?</h2>
<p>It’s very unlikely your smartphone will explode as a result of charging – especially since most phones now have automatic protections against overcharging.</p>
<p>Still, over the years we have seen <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/india/shocking-school-girl-dies-after-mobile-phone-explodes-in-her-hand-12503252.html">several</a> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/samsung-finally-explains-galaxy-note-7-exploding-battery-mess-n710581">reports</a> of phones exploding unexpectedly. This usually <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1952/3/032037/pdf">happens as a result</a> of manufacturing faults, poor-quality hardware or physical damage.</p>
<p>Lithium-ion phone batteries <a href="https://www.fire.nsw.gov.au/page.php?id=9389">overheat when</a> the heat generated during charging is unable to dissipate. This may cause burns or, in extreme cases, lead to a fire.</p>
<p>Also, these batteries operate effectively within a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42341-021-00357-6">temperature</a> range of 0°C to 40°C. They may expand at <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/10/6/1192">higher ambient temperatures</a>, potentially causing a fire or explosion.</p>
<p>Using an incorrect, faulty or poor-quality <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1952/3/032037/pdf">charger or cable</a> can also lead to overheating, fire hazards and damage to the phone itself.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/phone-wet-and-wont-turn-on-heres-how-to-deal-with-water-damage-hint-soaking-it-in-rice-wont-work-158633">Phone wet and won't turn on? Here's how to deal with water damage (hint: soaking it in rice won't work)</a>
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<h2>Tips to enhance your battery’s lifespan</h2>
<p>Although your phone probably has in-built safety mechanisms to protect its battery, taking a cautious approach will make it last even longer. Here are some ways to protect your phone’s battery:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>install the latest software updates to keep your phone up-to-date with the manufacturer’s battery efficiency enhancements</p></li>
<li><p>use original or certified power chargers, as the power delivery (amps, volts and watts) in off-market chargers can differ and may not meet the required safety standards</p></li>
<li><p>avoid exposing your phone to high temperatures – <a href="https://www.apple.com/batteries/maximizing-performance/">Apple</a> and <a href="https://www.samsung.com/us/support/answer/ANS00076952/">Samsung</a> say their phones work best at 0°C to 35°C ambient temperatures</p></li>
<li><p>limit your charging to 80% of the full capacity and don’t let it dip below 20%</p></li>
<li><p>don’t leave your phone charging for an extended period, such as overnight, and disconnect it from the power source if the battery reaches 100%</p></li>
<li><p>keep your phone in a <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/iphone/iph301fc905/ios">well-ventilated</a> area while it’s charging and avoid placing it or the charger under a blanket, pillow or your body while it’s connected to a power source</p></li>
<li><p>monitor your battery health and use to identify unusual trends, such as taking an excessive time to charge, or rapid draining</p></li>
<li><p>if you notice your phone is heating up excessively, or has a bulging or swollen back, get an authorised service centre to check and repair it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If you want specific details about your particular phone and battery, the best option is to follow the manufacturer’s guidelines.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-2022-why-do-we-still-not-have-waterproof-phones-185775">It's 2022. Why do we still not have waterproof phones?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ritesh Chugh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Plus 8 tips for maximising your battery’s lifespan.Ritesh Chugh, Associate Professor - Information and Communications Technology, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2114942023-08-15T01:52:49Z2023-08-15T01:52:49ZWhy a ban on cellphones in schools might be more of a distraction than the problem it’s trying to fix<p>The National Party’s promised ban on cellphones in schools has been <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018901834/national-government-would-ban-cellphones-in-schools">touted by leader Christopher Luxon</a> as a “common sense” and “practical” way to address New Zealand’s poor academic achievement. </p>
<p>And his claim that “phones are a massive disturbance and distraction” seems credible on the face of it. A <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385723/PDF/385723eng.pdf.multi">recent UNESCO report</a> found the intensive use of devices had negative impacts on student performance and increased disruption in the classroom.</p>
<p>App notifications throughout the day were found to be distracting students from their learning, affecting focus, recall and comprehension.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775719303966">international research</a> suggests a blanket ban would make only a small difference to grades. A focus on phones risks shifting attention from other reasons students may be underachieving.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-smartphones-belong-in-classrooms-four-scholars-weigh-in-210099">Do smartphones belong in classrooms? Four scholars weigh in</a>
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<h2>Misunderstanding the UNESCO report</h2>
<p>Current interpretations of the UNESCO report, including how it is being used in the political argument, seem to focus on phones as the main source of distraction for students.</p>
<p>But these interpretations fail to acknowledge the broader context of the report’s findings. The report looks at smartphones as part of a wider suite of information communications technology (ICT) used during the school day, including personal laptops and tablets. These devices can also lead to distraction and lower student engagement.</p>
<p>The UNESCO report actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-cellphones-in-classrooms-is-not-a-quick-fix-for-student-well-being-210178">cautions against a complete device ban</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Students need to learn the risks and opportunities that come with technology, develop critical skills, and understand to live with and without technology. Shielding students from new and innovative technology can put them at a disadvantage. It is important to look at these issues with an eye on the future and be ready to adjust and adapt as the world changes.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Learning from overseas bans</h2>
<p>Almost one in four countries have laws and policies banning smartphones in schools, most commonly in Central and South Asia. </p>
<p>Several Australian states have introduced bans over the past few years, with anecdotal evidence suggesting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3qC3RKgZAI">higher student engagement</a>. Other countries, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/26/put-learners-first-unesco-calls-for-global-ban-on-smartphones-in-schools">the Netherlands and the United Kingdom</a>, are following suit.</p>
<p>A British study found banning phones is an effective <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927537116300136">low-cost policy to improve student performance</a>. However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775719303966">Swedish research</a> aiming to replicate the British findings suggests the impact of a mobile phone ban on student achievement is negligible. </p>
<p>According to the Swedish research, “mobile phone bans have no impact on student performance, and we can reject even very small effects of banning mobile phones in the Swedish setting”.</p>
<p>The UNESCO report itself suggests a ban would be little more than a blunt approach to what is a much more complex problem.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1689003800940490752"}"></div></p>
<h2>Beyond the politics</h2>
<p>While the evidence supporting a ban continues to be evaluated, the approach will appeal to many New Zealand parents and teachers who have concerns about children’s phone use and the impact of phones in the classroom and at home. These concerns make a ban an easy political win for National.</p>
<p>But schools, which operate as self-governing institutions through a board of trustees, currently implement their own policies on phone use. A blanket ban will undermine their ability to choose what is best for their community.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-smart-is-it-to-allow-students-to-use-mobile-phones-at-school-40621">How smart is it to allow students to use mobile phones at school?</a>
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<p>Decisions about a phone policy would benefit from community consultation supported by sound evidence. These consultations should involve all those with a stake in students’ learning, including the students themselves – <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/school-census-most-kids-have-their-own-phones-by-age-11/7VPOW2XXESDNCALCVWK4WQEC5Q/#">90% of whom have a cellphone</a> by their first year of high school.</p>
<p>And we should be putting faith in our students. In my study on <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2292/52856">teenage girls and social media</a>, students reported varying degrees of self-regulation and high self-awareness of the impact of social media on their wellbeing. They were able to enact their own boundaries to mitigate the negative effects of new technologies.</p>
<p>Perhaps what is needed here is an educational approach, rather than a ban. We could give young people the resources to develop the necessary critical thinking strategies and self-awareness to engage reflectively with these new technologies.</p>
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<h2>Addressing what really hurts student achievement</h2>
<p>What remain strikingly absent from the discussion are the various other pressures causing lower student achievement, such as the ongoing <a href="https://ero.govt.nz/news/education-in-nz-suffers-long-covid-learners-progress-increasing-inequities-and-ongoing-impacts-on">impact of the pandemic on student learning</a>. </p>
<p>We need to be looking at the <a href="https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/04/30/why-are-so-many-new-zealand-kids-skipping-school/">effects of truancy</a> and what support schools are receiving to turn this around. We also need to address what the <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/486580/child-poverty-reduction-stalls-ahead-of-cost-of-living-crisis">cost-of-living crisis is doing to families</a> and their ability to meet the basic needs of their children.</p>
<p>There is clearly a crisis in the education sector and these other pressures on young people’s engagement need be taken seriously. Instead of a blanket ban on cellphones in the classroom, efforts should be put towards getting children to school and keeping them there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eunice Gaerlan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The National Party wants a blanket ban on cellphones in school. But international research suggests improving student engagement is complex, and such a policy might even be counterproductive.Eunice Gaerlan, Lecturer, School of Education, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2101782023-07-26T20:43:09Z2023-07-26T20:43:09ZBanning cellphones in classrooms is not a quick fix for student well-being<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538770/original/file-20230721-21-9we7o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C10%2C3600%2C2177&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">UNESCO's new report calls for corporate responsibility and stronger governance to regulate education technology.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/banning-cellphones-in-classrooms-is-not-a-quick-fix-for-student-well-being" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000385723">a report</a> highlighting the many challenges of the growing presence of technology in education. </p>
<p>This report is groundbreaking in its call for corporate responsibility for education technology and in its recognition for the need for enhanced literacy curriculum. </p>
<p>In a chapter on governance and regulation, the report notes “privacy is routinely violated for private benefit,” “safety risks cannot be dismissed,” “cyberbullying is a growing concern,” “physical and mental well-being are at risk from excessive technology use” and that, globally, “almost one in four countries have introduced [cellphone bans in laws or policies].” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-smart-is-it-to-allow-students-to-use-mobile-phones-at-school-40621">How smart is it to allow students to use mobile phones at school?</a>
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<p>What “ban” means may vary: In 2019, <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/cellphones-and-other-personal-mobile-devices-schools">Ontario introduced restrictions</a> (sometimes called a “ban”) on using cellphones or personal mobile devices during instructional time. Devices can be used in classrooms “for educational purposes only as directed by the educator in the classroom.” CBC reported in June 2023 <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canadian-schools-cell-phone-bans-1.6869993">Ontario is the only province in Canada with an active ban on cellphones</a> in the classroom.</p>
<p>Despite UNESCO’s many nuanced recommendations, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/26/put-learners-first-unesco-calls-for-global-ban-on-smartphones-in-schools">some media are simply reporting UNESCO is calling for a ban on smartphones in schools</a>. As such, there is a risk that governments will seek the simplest and least effective solution to ban cellphones in schools as a singular, one-size-fits-all approach.</p>
<p>This would be a mistake, since it would fail to acknowledge the complexity of youth online life and ignore the report’s most pressing recommendations for tech regulation and attention to equity. It would also fail to address the need for teaching that helps young people become more literate and make sense of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25871-8">a complex information environment</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A teen's hands seen on a laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538771/original/file-20230721-8651-f68tkv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Youth both gain benefits and experience challenges from their online lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley for EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<h2>Looking at youth online life</h2>
<p>Young people gain benefits and experience challenges from their online lives. In <a href="https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29577">my research</a>, I have interviewed students who talk freely about the positive and negative outcomes of their social media use. </p>
<p>The U.S. Surgeon General’s <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-health-social-media-advisory.pdf">recent <em>Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health</em></a> acknowledged many young people find communities of affinity online and forge connections to new interests that are not available to them geographically. They explore new ways of expressing themselves.</p>
<p>The advisory also noted “while social media may have benefits … there are ample indicators that social media can also have a profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” Pervasive and unregulated social media use can lead <a href="https://ontario.cmha.ca/documents/addictions-and-problematic-internet-use/">to addictions</a>, facilitate <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000260382">exploitation and radicalization</a> and entrench <a href="https://theconversation.com/mounting-research-documents-the-harmful-effects-of-social-media-use-on-mental-health-including-body-image-and-development-of-eating-disorders-206170">mental health challenges</a>. </p>
<p>Banning cellphones in schools does little as a standalone solution to such a complex relationship between youth online life and education. The solutions proposed to address such problems must not ignore how youth engage with these spaces outside the school and how pervasive online life is for youth identity formation.</p>
<h2>Downloading responsibilities to schools</h2>
<p>The most important finding in both the <a href="https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2023/07/Summary_v5.pdf">UNESCO report</a> and <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-health-social-media-advisory.pdf">U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory</a> on social media is that technology companies bear the weight of consumer responsibility, and governments must play a role in regulating these companies. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-neoliberalism-84755">today’s neoliberal</a> capitalist environment — where states have shifted to become promoters of markets, and where all aspects of our public and personal lives are influenced by the economy — companies are often permitted to pursue profit for shareholders while “responsible” use is downloaded to individuals or local governments.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/never-ending-pressure-mothers-need-support-managing-kids-technology-use-204315">'Never-ending pressure': Mothers need support managing kids' technology use</a>
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<p>If some social media companies have been permitted to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811912101410">take advantage of the youth market</a> for profit, then framing schools as ultimately responsible for technology use simply obscures the heart of the issue. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538772/original/file-20230721-22713-x06iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Technology is woven into all aspects of education and governments must play a role in regulating technology companies.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Allison Shelley for EDUimages)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<p>As the UNESCO report authors note, “The commercial sphere and the commons pull in different directions. The growing influence of the education technology industry on education policy at the national and international levels is a cause for concern.” </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-street-proof-our-kids-why-arent-we-data-proofing-them-123415">We street-proof our kids. Why aren't we data-proofing them?</a>
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<p>Our societies must advocate for governments to act in regulating technology companies. This includes enacting and enforcing age limits for social media apps, curtailing access to children’s data and curbing technology companies’ presence as the education technology industry in schools.</p>
<h2>Implications for teaching and learning</h2>
<p>The most relevant takeaway for public education in the <a href="https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2023/07/Summary_v5.pdf">UNESCO report</a> is not that cellphones should be banned in schools. Instead, I highlight three messages as particularly useful and urgent: </p>
<p><strong>1. Online learning cannot replicate or replace the merits of being together in classrooms in person.</strong></p>
<p>The report acknowledges particular circumstances when technology can be connective or inclusive. But it also notes that the push to individualize learning through digital technologies and online learning environments “may be missing what education is all about.” That is, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1803834">education is largely a social and relational practice</a> that requires us being together in space and time. </p>
<p><strong>2. Educational technology in schools is a business with a profit agenda.</strong> </p>
<p>The authors find that to “understand the discourse around education technology, it is necessary to look behind the language being used to promote it, and the interests it serves,” and that most of the evidence of the value of ed-tech in schools is produced by the companies selling it. </p>
<p>Educational institutions need to know that investing <a href="https://theconversation.com/digital-platforms-alone-dont-bridge-youth-divides-121222">in ed-tech alone won’t solve long-standing inequities or challenges in education</a>. Neither should educational technology be employed as a means <a href="https://theconversation.com/mandatory-e-learning-is-a-problem-in-ontario-high-schools-133041">for cutting in-person learning education budgets</a>. </p>
<p><strong>3. “Education systems need to be <a href="https://gem-report-2023.unesco.org/technology-in-education/">better prepared to teach about and through digital technology</a>.”</strong> </p>
<p>The report’s calls for more responsive curriculum, teacher training and engagement with youth online life echoes recommendations offered by a range of scholars in my edited collection, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25871-8"><em>Education in the Age of Misinformation</em></a>. </p>
<p>Young people are grappling with information abundance, hidden technological manipulation and an onslaught of mis- and disinformation. Banning cellphones in schools won’t address this complexity. Neither are outdated media literacy or narrow <a href="https://theconversation.com/ontarios-choice-of-fully-online-school-would-gamble-on-children-for-profit-158292">digital literacy</a> curricula. </p>
<p>Rather, to complement the urgent call for government regulation of tech companies described above, we need comprehensive <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2014.942836">new literacy teaching</a> that will make space for how students experience the emotional, psychological, cognitive and ethical demands of online and in-person life.</p>
<p>Despite the appeal of simplistic solutions, the way forward requires comprehensive government interventions. These would regulate technology companies, invest in the common good of in-person public education and develop whole-child curriculum that avoids moral panic and instead fosters critical literacy and social responsibility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lana Parker receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p>A new report from UNESCO analyzes the many challenges of the growing presence of technology in education and notes 14 per cent of countries have policies that ban mobile phones.Lana Parker, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2100992023-07-26T12:18:56Z2023-07-26T12:18:56ZDo smartphones belong in classrooms? Four scholars weigh in<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539214/original/file-20230725-23-c94xjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C4099%2C3671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Academic performance improves when schools ban smartphones, research shows.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/happy-teenage-girls-in-class-looking-at-cell-phone-royalty-free-image/1011461988?phrase=smartphones+classrooms&adppopup=true">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Should smartphones be allowed in classrooms? A <a href="https://www.unesco.org/gem-report/sites/default/files/medias/fichiers/2023/07/Summary_v5.pdf">new report</a> from <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/brief">UNESCO</a>, the education arm of the United Nations, raises questions about the practice. Though smartphones can be used for educational purposes, the report says the devices also disrupt classroom learning, expose students to cyberbullying and can compromise students’ privacy.</em></p>
<p><em>About 1 in 7 countries globally, such as <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-07-04/mobile-phones-to-be-banned-from-dutch-classrooms-next-year">the Netherlands</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/12/12/570145408/france-moves-to-ban-students-from-using-cellphones-in-schools">France</a>, have banned the use of smartphones in school – and academic performance improved as a result, particularly for low-performing students, the report notes.</em></p>
<p><em>As school leaders in the U.S. wrestle with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/the-schools-that-ban-smartphones/673117/">whether or not to ban smartphones</a>, The Conversation has invited four scholars to weigh in on the issue.</em></p>
<h2>Daniel G. Krutka: Use smartphones to encourage ‘technoskepticism’</h2>
<p>While the issue of smartphone use in schools is complicated, evidence suggests that spending more time on smartphones is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000403">associated with young people being less happy and less satisfied with life</a>.</p>
<p>Technology scholars have long argued that the <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/132784/technopoly-by-neil-postman/">key to living well with technology</a> is in finding limits. However, in banning smartphones, I worry educators might be missing opportunities to use smartphones to encourage what I and other researchers refer to as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00317217231168262">technoskeptical thinking</a>; that is, questioning our relationship with technology.</p>
<p>For example, students might be encouraged to consider the benefits and drawbacks of using navigational apps to travel from one place to another, as opposed to old-fashioned paper maps. Or, students might explore their social media feeds to critique what algorithms feed them, or how notifications get their attention.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Zj0urDUAAAAJ&hl=en">my research</a>, I have looked at how teachers can encourage students to go on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.03.009">techno-fasts</a> – that is, abstaining from the use of technology for a certain period of time. This, I argue, will give students time to reflect on the time they spend <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.03.009">away from their devices</a>. </p>
<p>Policy debates often focus on whether or not to put smartphones out of reach during the school day. But I believe educators might find it more beneficial to make the phones an object of inquiry.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of kids in a classroom looks at a phone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539365/original/file-20230725-25-4vcd0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539365/original/file-20230725-25-4vcd0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539365/original/file-20230725-25-4vcd0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539365/original/file-20230725-25-4vcd0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539365/original/file-20230725-25-4vcd0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539365/original/file-20230725-25-4vcd0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539365/original/file-20230725-25-4vcd0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Massachusetts Commissioner of Education Jeffrey Riley recently said the state may begin encouraging school districts to ban cellphone use in schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/group-of-high-school-students-looking-at-message-on-royalty-free-image/976330346?phrase=cell+phone+classroom&adppopup=true">monkeybusinessimages/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Sarah Rose: Consult parents, teachers and students</h2>
<p>While there is evidence that classroom phone usage <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.229">can be a distraction</a>, it can also promote <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2019.1702426">engagement and learning</a>. While research about the potential positive and negative consequences of classroom phones can be used to inform school phone policies, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.11.007">views of those</a> who are most directly impacted by the policies should also be taken into account.</p>
<p>The views of parents matter because their views <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2016.11.007">may influence</a> the extent to which their children follow the policy. The views of children matter because they are the ones being expected to follow the policy and to benefit from it. The views of teachers matter because they are often the ones that have to enforce the policies. Research shows that enforcing cellphone policies is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.011">not always a straightforward issue</a>. </p>
<p>In my research, I have found that children – aged 10 and 11 years old – in collaboration with their parents, were able to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12583">come up with ideas for ideal policies</a> and solutions to help enforce them. For example, one parent-child pair suggested mobile phone use in school could be banned but that a role of “telephone monitor” could be given to an older pupil. This “telephone monitor” would have a class mobile phone that children and parents could use to contact each other during the school day when necessary.</p>
<p>This recommendation reflected how parents and middle and high school students – whether from rural and urban areas – felt cellphones were important to keep in touch with each other during the school day. Beyond safety, children and parents also told us that phones were important for keeping in touch about changing plans and for emotional support during the school day.</p>
<p>I believe policies that simply ban phones in schools may be missing an opportunity to educate children about responsible mobile device use. When parents and children are involved in policy development, it has the potential to increase the extent to which these policies are followed and enforced. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of kids in a classroom look at their phone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539366/original/file-20230725-23-ju7ly8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539366/original/file-20230725-23-ju7ly8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539366/original/file-20230725-23-ju7ly8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539366/original/file-20230725-23-ju7ly8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539366/original/file-20230725-23-ju7ly8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539366/original/file-20230725-23-ju7ly8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539366/original/file-20230725-23-ju7ly8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2020, cellphone bans were in place in 76% of U.S. schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/multi-ethnic-group-of-students-using-smartphones-royalty-free-image/962475588?phrase=cell%2Bphone%2Bclassroom">gorodenkoff/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Arnold L. Glass: Cellphone use in college lectures hurts performance in ways that are hard to see</h2>
<p>The intrusion of internet-enabled electronic devices, such as laptops, tablets and cellphones, has transformed the modern college lecture. Students now divide their attention between the lecture and their devices. Classroom studies reveal that when college students use an electronic device for a nonacademic purpose during class, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2018.1489046">it hurts their performance on exams</a>.</p>
<p>When attention is divided between an electronic device and the classroom lecture, it does not reduce comprehension of the lecture – at least, not when measured by within-class quizzes. Instead, divided attention reduces long-term retention of the classroom lecture, which hurts performance on unit exams and final exams. </p>
<p>When some students open electronic devices, it also negatively affects the performance of all the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003">students around them</a>. Research has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003">student performance on final exams was worse</a> when electronic devices were permitted during classes that covered exam material versus when the devices were not.</p>
<p>Many students won’t think their divided attention is affecting their retention of new information. It may not be for the moment, but a couple of weeks later or down the line, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.10.003">research shows</a>, it does.</p>
<h2>Louis-Philippe Beland: Bans help low-achieving students the most</h2>
<p>Numerous studies indicate that low-achieving students stand to benefit the most from the implementation of mobile phone bans in schools.</p>
<p>In a 2015 study, my co-author, <a href="https://www.richardmurphy.org/">Richard Murphy</a>, and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2016.04.004">examined the impact of banning mobile phones on student performance</a> in high schools, using data from England. By comparing schools with phone bans to similar schools without the bans, we isolated the effect of mobile phones on performance. Our study found that banning mobile phones significantly increased test scores among 16-year-old students. The effect is equivalent to adding five days to the school year or an extra hour per week. Low-achieving students benefited more, while high-achieving students remained unaffected. </p>
<p>Similar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/AEA-05-2021-0112">studies in Spain</a> and <a href="https://openaccess.nhh.no/nhh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/3069282/_%2016_00464-33%20thesis_abrahamsson%20732139_2_1.PDF?sequence=1">Norway</a> using a similar approach demonstrated compelling evidence supporting the benefits of banning mobile phones. In Spain, grades improved and bullying incidents decreased. In Norway, the ban raised middle school students’ grade-point averages and their likelihood of attending academic high schools while reducing bullying. Evidence from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12214">Belgium</a> suggests banning mobile phones can be beneficial for college student performance. </p>
<p>Psychological research sheds light on potential mechanisms behind the impact of mobile phones and technology on student performance. Multitasking, common with mobile phone use, has been found to hinder <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0903620106">learning and task execution</a>. Taking notes by hand has been shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2013.767917">better enhance memory retention</a> compared to typing on a computer.</p>
<p>In sum, banning mobile phones in schools can yield positive effects, improve academic performance and narrow the achievement gap between high- and low-achieving students. However, it is crucial to acknowledge that mobile phones and technology can also be valuable educational tools when used appropriately.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louis-Philippe Beland receives funding from SSHRC insight grant and SSHRC insight development grant.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arnold Lewis Glass, Daniel G. Krutka, and Sarah Rose do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report proposed restrictions on the use of technology in the classroom.Louis-Philippe Beland, Associate Professor of Economics, Carleton UniversityArnold Lewis Glass, Professor of Psychology, Rutgers UniversityDaniel G. Krutka, Associate Professor of Social Studies Education, University of North TexasSarah Rose, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Child Development, Staffordshire UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2079262023-06-22T20:06:58Z2023-06-22T20:06:58ZWhy can’t I use my phone or take photos on the airport tarmac? Is it against the law?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533331/original/file-20230622-27-61n5mz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5392%2C3581&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-may-27-2018-people-by-1111827515">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mobile phones are not allowed to be used while on a plane because they can interfere with the aeroplane’s navigation instruments and <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-the-real-reason-to-turn-on-aeroplane-mode-when-you-fly-188585">cause various safety and social issues</a>.</p>
<p>As soon as the plane lands, we’re permitted to turn off flight mode, but at some airports we can’t get much of a signal. That’s because airports are known as mobile signal “<a href="https://thepointsguy.com/news/slow-connection-airport-tarmacs/">dead zones</a>” due to a lack of mobile towers – they can’t be placed at the airport itself due to height restrictions.</p>
<p>Any nearby mobile towers would be located away from the airport’s runway systems to avoid interfering with the aeroplane’s flight path, especially take-off and landing direction. Most airports put up indoor repeater antennas within the airport terminal; these help increase the mobile signal strength coming from the nearest mobile tower somewhere near the airport.</p>
<p>But you won’t be allowed to make calls while walking away from the plane, anyway.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-the-real-reason-to-turn-on-aeroplane-mode-when-you-fly-188585">Here's the real reason to turn on aeroplane mode when you fly</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why can’t I use my phone on the tarmac?</h2>
<p>As we are taxiing in, the <a href="https://www.qantas.com/au/en/qantas-experience/onboard/communication.html">cabin crew</a> remind us not to smoke outside of designated areas at the terminal and not to use our mobile phones until we are inside the terminal building.</p>
<p>If you exit the plane down the rear stairs, why aren’t you allowed to use your phone once away from the aeroplane, if you can get a signal? Surely it won’t affect navigation.</p>
<p>The answer is manifold, and regulations aren’t the same across the world.</p>
<p>In Australia, a <a href="https://www.casa.gov.au/operations-safety-and-travel/travel-and-passengers/onboard-safety-and-behaviour/using-your-electronic-devices-flights">government regulation</a> prohibits the use of mobile phones on the tarmac – the aeroplane movement and parking area of the airport.</p>
<p>You won’t be fined if you whip your phone out while walking to the terminal, but the airline may admonish you for not following the rules. However, if you decide to (<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/woman-arrested-after-running-onto-tarmac-at-melbourne-airport-20151125-gl7bkq.html">run around on the tarmac</a>, you could get arrested by federal police.</p>
<p>The airport tarmac is very busy not just with aircraft, but also baggage carts, catering trucks, aeroplane waste removal trucks, and fuel trucks. Getting passengers off the tarmac and into the terminal building quickly and safely is a priority for the staff.</p>
<p>If you are distracted while walking to the terminal building because you’re talking on your phone, it can be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/25/alabama-airport-worker-killed-jet-engine-safety-warnings">highly dangerous and even deadly</a> if you end up too close to an operating plane. An operating jet engine is extremely hot and has a strong exhaust. Additionally, the front of the engine has a low-pressure area called an <a href="https://www.ukfrs.com/guidance/search/aircraft-systems-and-construction">ingestion zone</a> that can suck in a person. Ground staff are trained to stay at least ten metres away from this area. However, this information is not shared with the passengers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533338/original/file-20230622-19-4wmz21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Long view photo of a snowy grey tarmac with an air canada plane and several fuel and other support trucks around it" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533338/original/file-20230622-19-4wmz21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533338/original/file-20230622-19-4wmz21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533338/original/file-20230622-19-4wmz21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533338/original/file-20230622-19-4wmz21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533338/original/file-20230622-19-4wmz21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533338/original/file-20230622-19-4wmz21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533338/original/file-20230622-19-4wmz21.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tarmac is busy with crew, various support and fuel vehicles, and airplanes themselves, with plenty of hazards for a passenger who wanders into the wrong area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/OIf5dPuecMg">David Preston/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A myth about fuel</h2>
<p>You may have heard that mobile phones are a fire hazard near fuel, and aeroplanes are, of course, refuelled on the tarmac.</p>
<p>However, the chances of fuel catching fire during this process are extremely low, because the refuelling truck is <a href="https://safetyfirst.airbus.com/safe-aircraft-refuelling/">bonded and “grounded” to the plane</a>: the operator attaches a wire to the aircraft to move built-up static electricity to the ground to prevent any chance of a spark. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533350/original/file-20230622-18-ot2mup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sign at a petrol station showing smoking and mobile phones are prohibited" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533350/original/file-20230622-18-ot2mup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533350/original/file-20230622-18-ot2mup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533350/original/file-20230622-18-ot2mup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533350/original/file-20230622-18-ot2mup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533350/original/file-20230622-18-ot2mup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533350/original/file-20230622-18-ot2mup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533350/original/file-20230622-18-ot2mup.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Warning about mobile phones at petrol stations are inaccurate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/warning-sign-gas-petroleum-industrial-prevention-2084569294">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There have been stories in the press about mobile phones sparking <a href="https://www.verizon.com/about/news/vzw/2014/12/fact-or-fiction-using-a-cell-phone-at-the-gas-station-can-cause-a-fire">fires at petrol stations in Indonesia and Australia</a>, but these turned out to be inaccurate. There is <a href="https://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/AboutTheCodes/30A/FI%20-%20NFPA%2030A-2015%20Para%208.3.1%20-%20Attachments%2014-19.2017-04-04.pdf">no evidence a phone can spark a fire at a fuel pump</a>, despite the warning labels you might see.</p>
<p>Either way, the chances of a mobile phone causing this on the tarmac with a refuelling truck that is grounded to the aeroplane are extremely low, not least because the passenger permitted areas and refuelling areas are completely separated.</p>
<h2>Why are we told not to take photos on the tarmac?</h2>
<p>This rule varies from airport to airport depending on their <a href="https://www.tsa.gov/travel/frequently-asked-questions/can-i-film-and-take-photos-security-checkpoint">security processes</a>.</p>
<p>Such restrictions are carryovers from the changes to airport security following the <a href="https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/jlecono50&i=739">September 11 2001 terrorist attacks</a>. The now federalised security teams, TSA (Transportation Security Administration) in the United States and the Department of Home Affairs in Australia, change their processes frequently to prevent having any identifiable patterns that could be used to create a security breach.</p>
<p>The increased security measures also mean new technologies were introduced; airport security sections do not want photos taken of how they operate. </p>
<p>The airport security process is a major choke point in the flow of passenger movement due to the screening process. If a passenger is perceived to be slowing the process down by taking photos or talking on their phone, they will be reminded to turn off their device and/or stop taking photos of security personnel and equipment.</p>
<p>If you refuse to follow the rules of the screening process, you will be <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do/travelsecure/passenger-screening">denied entry</a> into the airport terminal gate area and miss your flight. Can you also get arrested for using your phone? Depends on the airport and country. I, for one, do not want to find out.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Doug Drury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Lingering on the tarmac once you get off a plane through the rear door is unadvisable for many reasons – here’s why the staff want your phone in your pocket.Doug Drury, Professor/Head of Aviation, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2039882023-04-24T16:14:01Z2023-04-24T16:14:01ZThe dirty truth about your phone – and why you need to stop scrolling in the bathroom<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522188/original/file-20230420-1700-nz53nk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C26%2C1970%2C1461&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Using your phone when you're on the toilet is a horrid habit. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cropped-image-beautiful-young-woman-using-488716744">Canva/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We carry them everywhere, take them to bed, to the bathroom and for many people they’re the first thing they see in the morning – more than 90% of the world owns or uses a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11020523">mobile phone</a> and many of us couldn’t manage without one.</p>
<p>But while health concerns about phones use usually focus on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-using-a-mobile-phone-while-driving-is-so-dangerous-even-when-youre-hands-free-71833">distraction they can cause</a> while driving, the possible effects of <a href="https://theconversation.com/theres-no-evidence-5g-is-going-to-harm-our-health-so-lets-stop-worrying-about-it-120501">radiofrequency exposure</a>, or just how <a href="https://theconversation.com/seven-tips-for-a-healthier-relationship-with-your-phone-202215">addictive they can be</a>. The microbial infection risk of your phone is much less appreciated – <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93622-w">but it’s very real</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2019/02/28/most-britons-use-their-phone-toilet">A 2019 survey</a> found that most people in the UK use their phones on the toilet. So it’s not surprising to discover studies have found our mobile phones to be <a href="https://cals.arizona.edu/news/why-your-cellphone-has-more-germs-toilet">dirtier that toilet seats</a>. </p>
<p>We give our phones to children to play with (who aren’t exactly well known for their hygiene). We also eat while using our phones and put them down on all sorts of (dirty) surfaces. All of which can transfer microbes onto your phone along with food deposits for those microbes to eat. </p>
<p>It’s been estimated that people touch their phone <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2276752/Mobile-users-leave-phone-minutes-check-150-times-day.html">hundreds</a> if not <a href="https://dscout.com/people-nerds/mobile-touches">thousands</a> of times a day. And while many of us wash our hands regularly after say, going to the bathroom, cooking, cleaning, or gardening, we are much less likely to consider washing our hands after <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/articles/us175371_tmt_connectivity-and-mobile-trends-interactive-landing-page/DI_Connectivity-mobile-trends-2022.pdf">touching our phones</a>. But given how disgusting and germ-infested phones can be, maybe it’s time to think more about <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19267892/">mobile phone hygiene</a>.</p>
<h2>Germs, bacteria, viruses</h2>
<p>Hands pick up bacteria and viruses all the time and are <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html">recognised as a route</a> for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK144014/#parti_ch7.s3">acquiring infection</a>. So too are the phones we touch. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-14118-9">A number</a> of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7196688/">studies</a> conducted on the microbiological colonisation of mobile phones show that they can be contaminated with many different kinds of potentially pathogenic bacteria.</p>
<p>These include the diarrhoea-inducing <em>E. coli</em> (which, by the way, comes from human poo) and the skin-infecting <em>Staphylococcus</em>, as well as <em>Actinobacteria</em>, which can cause tuberculosis and diphtheria, <em>Citrobacter</em>, which can lead to painful urinary tract infections, and <em>Enterococcus</em>, which is known to cause meningitis. <em>Klebsiella</em>, <em>Micrococcus</em>, <em>Proteus</em>, <em>Pseudomonas</em> and <em>Streptococcus</em> have also been found on phones and all can have equally nasty effects on humans.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6130244/">Research</a> has found that many pathogens on phones are often antibiotic resistant, meaning they can’t be treated with conventional drugs. This is worrying as these bacteria can cause skin, gut and respiratory infections that can be life-threatening. </p>
<p>Research has also found that even if you clean your phone with antibacterial wipes or alcohol it can still be recolonised by microorganisms, indicating that <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2607/11/2/523">sanitisation</a> must be a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-14118-9">regular process</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman wearing yellow jumper cleaning phone screen with a wipe." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522184/original/file-20230420-23-ne9bdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522184/original/file-20230420-23-ne9bdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522184/original/file-20230420-23-ne9bdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522184/original/file-20230420-23-ne9bdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522184/original/file-20230420-23-ne9bdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522184/original/file-20230420-23-ne9bdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522184/original/file-20230420-23-ne9bdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The importance of cleaning your phone and how to do it safely.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/coronavirus-global-epidemic-woman-disinfecting-phone-1677416521">Volurol/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Phones contain plastic which can harbour and <a href="https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(15)01034-4/fulltext">transmit viruses</a> some of which (the common cold virus) can live on hard plastic surfaces for up to a week. Other viruses such as COVID-19, rotavirus (a highly infectious stomach bug that typically affects babies and young children), influenza and norovirus – which can cause serious respiratory and gut infections – can persist in an infectable form for several days. </p>
<p>Indeed, since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has introduced <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hygiene/cleaning/cleaning-your-home.html">guidelines for cleaning and disinfecting mobile phones</a> – which, along with door handles, cash machines and <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-bed-sheets-to-the-tv-remote-a-microbiologist-reveals-the-shocking-truth-about-dirt-and-germs-in-hotel-rooms-202195">lift buttons</a>, are considered <a href="https://www.clinicalmicrobiologyandinfection.com/article/S1198-743X(15)01034-4/fulltext">reservoirs of infection</a>. </p>
<p>In particular, concern has been raised about the role mobile phones can play in the spread of infectious microbes in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7196688/">hospital and healthcare settings</a>, as well as in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5466825/">schools</a>. </p>
<h2>Clean your phone</h2>
<p>So it’s clear that you need to start cleaning your phone regularly. The US Federal Communications Commission actually recommends <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-sanitize-your-phone-and-other-devices">daily sanitation</a> of your phone and other devices – not least because we are still within an active COVID-19 pandemic and the virus can survive for several days on hard plastic surfaces. </p>
<p>Use <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-sanitize-your-phone-and-other-devices">alcohol-based wipes or sprays</a>. They need to contain at least 70% alcohol to disinfect phone casings and touch screens, and it needs to be done every day if possible. </p>
<p>Do not spray sanitisers directly onto the phone and keep liquids away from connection points or other phone openings. Absolutely avoid using bleach or abrasive cleaners. And wash your hands thoroughly after you’ve finished cleaning.</p>
<p>Thinking about how you handle your phone will also help to avoid it becoming colonised with germs. When not at home, keep your phone in your pocket, or bag and use a disposable paper list of to-do items, rather than constantly consulting your phone. Touch your phone with clean hands – washed with soap and water or disinfected with alcohol-based hand sanitiser. </p>
<p>There are other things you can do to avoid your phone becoming a source of viruses. Do not share your phone with others if you have any infection, or have not first sanitised it. If children are allowed to play with your phone, sanitise it as soon as possible afterwards. </p>
<p>And get in the habit of putting your phone away when not in use, then sanitising or washing your hands. You might also want to occasionally sanitise your phone charger when you are cleaning your phone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Primrose Freestone does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Your mobile phone is 10 times dirtier than a toilet seat. Here’s what to do about it.Primrose Freestone, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Microbiology, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2039892023-04-19T15:58:32Z2023-04-19T15:58:32ZEmergency alert system launches in the UK: should you be worried about privacy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521614/original/file-20230418-22-qlop3w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C2000%2C1410&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Privacy concerns over the emergency alert? Here's what you need to know.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gov.uk/alerts">gov.co.uk/Shutterstock/Canva</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When disaster strikes, it’s helpful to know what’s going on. This is why the UK government has launched an <a href="https://www.gov.uk/alerts">emergency alerts service</a>, to be used in life-threatening situations including flooding and wildfires. </p>
<p>The time has now come to test how the system works – which is why every mobile phone in the UK will get an emergency alert on Sunday, 23 April at 3pm. The message, which will appear alongside a loud alarm and vibration on millions of phones, will let the government see how this new public warning system operates. Your phone will vibrate and make a loud siren-like sound for about ten seconds – even if it’s on silent. </p>
<p><a href="https://news.sky.com/story/emergency-alerts-how-they-work-in-other-countries-including-a-few-times-when-it-has-gone-wrong-12851133">Similar systems</a> are already in place in countries such as the US, Australia, France and Japan. But while these alerts can make a <a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/(ASCE)1527-6988(2000)1:2(119)">big difference</a> in emergency situations, they also raise serious <a href="https://www.ohmymag.co.uk/news/uk-emergency-phone-alerts-have-citizens-concerned-about-privacy-heres-what-you-should-know_art16943.html">privacy concerns</a> which might tempt some people to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/alerts/how-alerts-work">opt out</a> from the messages. </p>
<p>Domestic violence charities have also <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/emergency-alerts-iphone-android-turn-off-b2314745.html">expressed concern</a> that the message and loud alarm may alert abusers to secret phones that some people experiencing violence in the home may have hidden. Women’s Aid and Refuge have both <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/how-stop-uk-gov-emergency-29709068">issued advice</a> on how to turn the alerts off if you’re hiding a secret phone. </p>
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<p>National alert systems use <a href="https://www.techopedia.com/definition/6405/cell-broadcast-cb">cell broadcasting technology</a>, which allows messages to be sent to all mobile devices within a defined area without knowing their phone numbers or locations. </p>
<p>In essence, the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-022-05241-x">cell broadcast system</a> is a computer that checks the message, makes sure it’s secure and valid, and then sends it via special radio signals to all the radio towers that cover the area where the message is meant to go. </p>
<p>Crucially, the message is not sent to individual phone numbers, but to groups of phones that are in the area – much like making an announcement via loudspeaker in a stadium full of people. </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/HumanRights4UK/status/1637407146022240259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1637407146022240259%7Ctwgr%5Ea710a1f9862290e12bd636dd0082e0adcbd8a495%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohmymag.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-emergency-phone-alerts-have-citizens-concerned-about-privacy-heres-what-you-should-know_art16943.html">Fears have been expressed</a> <a href="https://www.ohmymag.co.uk/news/uk-emergency-phone-alerts-have-citizens-concerned-about-privacy-heres-what-you-should-know_art16943.html">that cell broadcasting</a> could enable mass surveillance by revealing who is in a certain area at a certain time. Or by allowing authorities to track people’s movements across different areas. But are these worries really justified?</p>
<h2>Phones at risk?</h2>
<p>The Cabinet Office <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64999417">has stated</a> that the service does not require any personal information such as someone’s identity, location, or telephone number. Nonetheless, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0267364913001325?casa_token=BHpFihBaH9IAAAAA:D8Reo6QwWu5s-NdzCOg9vtLSk0jPNVmKxwuHT9W7t16bED3nt2UHqVyGlfK7hNx7kQItMBuJOQ">research</a> shows that privacy issues can happen even when personal information is not collected.</p>
<p>It’s possible, for example, that <a href="https://www.bitdefender.co.uk/blog/hotforsecurity/americas-emergency-alert-system-is-vulnerable-to-hacker-attacks-dhs-warns/">hackers could intercept</a> an emergency alert system if the alerts are not encrypted or authenticated properly, or if there are vulnerabilities in the devices or networks that receive them. Indeed, <a href="https://securityledger.com/2020/01/seven-years-later-scores-of-eas-systems-sit-un-patched-vulnerable/">warnings about lack of security</a> and potential hacks have been <a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/dhs-warns-of-critical-flaws-in-emergency-alert-system-devices/">raised in the US</a> around their <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/11/fema-emergency-alert-system/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANejl3TNI0cu8oU8Qqi24JV83k3UkN0FxG4uE31FlQDJ4mHLeqquX9nsnK19NfQHqo17BF4RbxyDfhlhfrFhcBLQ6M6NgkxDUyaYGQHI9f4rf-CQzt6S9nq42gHVCJTwm6h0FK7uwwaSblkmdkkekGJo0qTCtVfLdUJ_98q_1DBW">emergency alerts system</a>.</p>
<p>It’s also possible that <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2023/04/18/be-wary-of-phishing-scams-posing-as-emergency-alerts-warns-expert-18632557/">scammers</a> could use the opportunity to send false alerts to phones that include bogus links. The official alert won’t include any links or requests to reply.</p>
<p>And of course, alerts can be sent in error. In 2018, widespread panic was witnessed in Hawaii after an early-morning emergency alert mistakenly warned of an incoming ballistic missile attack. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Emergency Alert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521609/original/file-20230418-920-j5mbhf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521609/original/file-20230418-920-j5mbhf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521609/original/file-20230418-920-j5mbhf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521609/original/file-20230418-920-j5mbhf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=519&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521609/original/file-20230418-920-j5mbhf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521609/original/file-20230418-920-j5mbhf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521609/original/file-20230418-920-j5mbhf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=652&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This message set off widespread panic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/952257206208131073/photo/1">Twitter</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hypothetically speaking, it may also be possible to profile people through an alert system. If someone acknowledges an alert quickly or follows the instructions in the alert, it could indicate that they are compliant and cooperative. </p>
<p>Whereas, if someone ignores an alert or does not follow the instructions, it could indicate that they are rebellious or suspicious. China did a similar thing in terms of <a href="https://www.cpomagazine.com/data-privacy/china-adds-covid-19-contagion-risk-ratings-to-individual-profiles-in-national-surveillance-system/">contagion risk</a> during the height of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/technology/coronavirus-surveillance-tracking-privacy.html">COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>While the UK government says data isn’t being collected and a response isn’t required to the alert in this scenario, it should be said that, over the last ten years, the UK government’s track record in terms of state surveillance has been far from exemplary. </p>
<h2>State surveillance</h2>
<p>More specifically, the UK government has a history of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2021/05/uk-surveillance-gchq-ecthr-ruling/">abusing its surveillance powers</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/extreme-surveillance-becomes-uk-law-with-barely-a-whimper">violating people’s privacy rights</a>, often without public knowledge or consent. </p>
<p>In a series of <a href="https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng#%7B%22itemid%22:%5B%22001-186048%22%5D%7D">high-profile</a> <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/the-queen-v-secretary-of-state-for-the-home-secretary-of-state-for-foreign-and-commonwealth-affairs/">legal cases</a>, the UK security services have been found to be in unlawful overreach of their data surveillance powers, with successive home secretaries failing to hold them to account.</p>
<p>It’s also been discovered that UK security services have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jun/07/uk-gathering-secret-intelligence-nsa-prism">shared data</a> with foreign intelligence agencies, such as the US National Security Agency, without ensuring adequate protection of people’s privacy rights. With such a track record, it’s not surprising that there’s some scepticism when it comes to the government’s management of the emergency alerts system.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-tracking-citizens-phones-coronavirus-2020-3?r=US&IR=T">Fears around privacy</a> are also <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/27/coronavirus-surveillance-used-by-governments-to-fight-pandemic-privacy-concerns.html">understandable</a> given <a href="https://www.securityinfowatch.com/alarms-monitoring/emergency-safety-equipment/mass-notification-solutions/article/21209007/when-saving-lives-infringes-on-personal-privacy">concerns</a> about how similar systems could operate further afield. If a government already monitors the mobile device of a journalist, activist or whistleblower, for example – a practice that is unfortunately <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/07/the-pegasus-project-one-year-on-spyware-crisis-continues-after-failure-to-clamp-down-on-surveillance-industry/">not uncommon</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/18/ft-editor-roula-khalaf-among-180-journalists-targeted-nso-spyware">even in Europe</a> – it’s possible they could then narrow down the location of that person by checking whether they receive alerts that are sent to a specific area. </p>
<p>Despite these issues, <a href="https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/technology/960516/pros-and-cons-of-the-emergency-alert">on balance</a>, national alert systems are a useful tool for informing and protecting the public in case of emergencies. And instructing people to deactivate this function in their phones would not be responsible. At the same time, it’s a major oversimplification to <a href="https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/news/2023/04/emergency-alerts-national-test-to-take-place-on-sunday-23-april/">claim</a> there are no privacy risks whatsoever because the system <a href="https://fullfact.org/online/emergency-phone-alert-gdpr/">does not collect personal information</a>. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/uk-government-to-loosen-privacy-rules-to-enable-implementation-of-a-national-public-emergency-alert-system">privacy is not a luxury</a> or a privilege. It is a fundamental <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights-act/article-8-respect-your-private-and-family-life#:%7E:text=Article%208%3A%20Right%20to%20privacy,his%20home%20and%20his%20correspondence.">human right</a> that deserves respect and protection. This is why robust oversight of emergency alert systems is required to ensure they are not abused by governments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203989/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stergios Aidinlis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Emergency alerts system: a lifesaving service or a threat to privacy?Stergios Aidinlis, Lecturer in Law, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2011322023-04-03T16:26:04Z2023-04-03T16:26:04ZHere’s how the Rogers-Shaw merger could benefit Canadian customers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518541/original/file-20230330-20-297ypl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C3679%2C2495&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rogers' takeover of Shaw has been approved by the Canadian government, but the deal comes with stringent conditions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Canadian government has finally approved the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-shaw-approval-1.6797175">$26 billion takeover of Shaw by Rogers</a> after nearly two years of delays. When the merger was <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/03/15/2192622/0/en/Rogers-and-Shaw-to-come-together-in-26-billion-transaction-creating-new-jobs-and-investment-in-Western-Canada-and-accelerating-Canada-s-5G-rollout.html">first announced by Rogers in 2021</a>, it stirred up a significant amount of competition concern. </p>
<p>The Canadian Competition Bureau <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/competition-bureau/news/2023/01/statement-from-the-commissioner-of-competition-on-the-federal-court-of-appeals-decision-regarding-the-rogers-shaw-merger.html">was worried the merger would soften competition in the telecom industry</a>, resulting in higher prices and lower service quality for customers.</p>
<p>The bureau <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/competition-bureau-rogers-shaw-merger-1.6446827">filed a court application to block the deal in 2022</a>, but the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-shaw-appeal-court-1.6724045">Federal Court of Appeal rejected the application</a> and the subsequent <a href="https://financialpost.com/telecom/rogers-shaw-merger-approval-appeal-court">appeal from the bureau</a>.</p>
<p>But Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne appears to have heeded some of these concerns. <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/innovation-science-economic-development/news/2023/03/statement-from-minister-champagne-concerning-competition-in-the-telecommunication-sector.html">In his statement on the merger</a>, the minister said the deal’s approval is contingent on a series of legally enforceable conditions for Rogers and Videotron, the company that Shaw is selling its Freedom Mobile wireless business to.</p>
<p>These conditions are to ensure this merger will, according to Champagne, “actually drive down prices across Canada.” With the advent of these conditions, this deal could end up benefiting Canadian consumers and the economy.</p>
<h2>Lowering service costs</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/these-are-the-conditions-and-penalties-if-violated-of-the-rogers-shaw-deal-1.6337353">Two of the merger’s conditions</a> require Rogers to set up low-cost mobile plans for low-income Canadians, and expand its existing low-cost internet plans. Rogers has good reason to meet these conditions — if it violates any of them, it could be fined up to $1 billion.</p>
<p>Meeting these low-cost conditions shouldn’t be an issue for the merged company. According to Rogers, the <a href="https://about.rogers.com/news-ideas/rogers-and-shaw-to-come-together-in-26-billion-transaction-creating-new-jobs-and-investment-in-western-canada-and-accelerating-canadas-5g-rollout/">financial benefit of the merger will be around $1 billion annually</a>. </p>
<p>Rogers will also be able to lower service costs through integration. Since Canada is such a large country geographically, but <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2018005-eng.htm">relatively small population-wise</a>, it would be wasteful for Rogers to build their own infrastructure, instead of taking advantage of Shaw’s.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white middle-aged man gestures with his hands while speaking. Two Canadian flags stand behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518801/original/file-20230331-26-xtdw0z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518801/original/file-20230331-26-xtdw0z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518801/original/file-20230331-26-xtdw0z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518801/original/file-20230331-26-xtdw0z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518801/original/file-20230331-26-xtdw0z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518801/original/file-20230331-26-xtdw0z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518801/original/file-20230331-26-xtdw0z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne speaks at a news conference about the Rogers-Shaw merger on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 31.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shaw has a fibre route in western Canada that is over 12,000 kilometres long — Rogers will be able to save money by using this pre-existing route to deliver its services, instead of building new networks.</p>
<h2>Increasing internet access</h2>
<p>This merger also has the potential to play a key role in Canada’s 5G infrastructure and increasing internet access for Canadians.</p>
<p>5G is the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/what-is-5g-here-is-short-video-primer/">fifth generation of mobile network technology</a>. It’s more reliable, faster and can handle more data than 4G can. In other words, it’s the future of wireless networks — a future Canada should capitalize on.</p>
<p>The merger’s conditions require Rogers to expand broadband internet access and 5G services across the country. This will be especially important for households in suburban and <a href="https://nationalpost.com/feature/left-behind-internet-access-rural-canada">rural areas in Canada</a>, since it’s harder for them to access fibre and internet alternatives.</p>
<p>Given that 98.6 per cent of households in urban areas can access to broadband, but <a href="https://www.ckom.com/2023/01/08/indigenous-communities-across-canada-working-to-provide-internet-access-for-underserved/">only 45.6 per cent of rural households and 34.8 per cent of First Nations reserves</a> can, the merger could benefit rural markets substantially.</p>
<h2>Revitalizing the economy</h2>
<p>5G services are estimated to <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2022/10/17/strengthening-canadas-position-leader-5g-and-digital-innovation">contribute $40 billion annually</a> and <a href="https://www.5gcc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/CWTA-Accenture-Whitepaper-5G-Economic-Impact_Updates_WEB_06-19-2018.pdf">250,000 jobs to Canada by 2026</a>. Another one of the merger’s conditions is that Rogers create 3,000 jobs in Western Canada and maintain them for at least a decade.</p>
<p>These new jobs will be particularly important for Alberta, where Shaw’s home office is and where the company’s western headquarters will be located. The province has been <a href="https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-analysts-closely-watching-drastic-oil-slump-1.6316500">struggling with low oil prices</a> and <a href="https://www.iisd.org/publications/search-prosperity-oil-alberta-canada">declining oil demand</a> caused by a combination of market forces and international climate policies.</p>
<p>This merger could help Alberta diversify and sustain its economy <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-provincial-sales-tax-is-the-solution-to-albertas-fiscal-roller-coaster-191147">so it no longer needs to rely so heavily on the oil industry</a> for income. It could even help transition Calgary from an oil city to a technology hub.</p>
<p>It’s important to note, however, that this merger may still increase competition in the telecom industry in the short term, despite the federal government’s attempts to mitigate this with their stringent deal conditions. But in the long run, this deal could ultimately lead to increased innovation, which in turn, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-your-company-needs-an-innovation-strategy-in-2023-197186">would benefit consumers as well</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victor Song does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new conditions that have been heaped onto Rogers as a result of the Rogers-Shaw merger could end up benefiting Canadian consumers and the economy at large.Victor Song, Assistant Professor, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939522022-12-08T00:50:18Z2022-12-08T00:50:18ZPing, your pizza is on its way. Ping, please rate the driver. Yes, constant notifications really do tax your brain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493434/original/file-20221104-16-oohqhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/business-lunch-workplace-vegetarian-pizza-sharing-1481255771">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A ping from the pizza company. A couple of pings from your socials. Ping, ping, ping from your family WhatsApp group trying to organise a weekend barbecue. </p>
<p>With all those smartphone notifications, it’s no wonder you lose focus on what you’re trying to do do. </p>
<p>Your phone doesn’t even need to ping to distract you. There’s <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-28923-001">pretty good</a> <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462">evidence</a> the mere presence of your phone, silent or not, is enough to divert your attention.</p>
<p>So what’s going on? More importantly, how can you reclaim your focus, without missing the important stuff?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-youre-probably-not-addicted-to-your-smartphone-but-you-might-use-it-too-much-89853">No, you're probably not 'addicted' to your smartphone – but you might use it too much</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Is it really such a big deal?</h2>
<p>When you look at the big picture, those pings can really add up. </p>
<p>Although estimates vary, the average person checks their phone <a href="https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/30085/1/PubSub7601_Andrews.PDF">around 85 times</a> <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/trapped-in-the-net-are-we-all-addicted-to-our-smartphones-20190531-p51t44.html">a day</a>, roughly once every 15 minutes.</p>
<p>In other words, every 15 minutes or so, your attention is likely to wander from what you’re doing. The trouble is, it can take <a href="https://lifehacker.com/how-long-it-takes-to-get-back-on-track-after-a-distract-1720708353">several minutes</a> to regain your concentration fully after being <a href="https://www.ics.uci.edu/%7Egmark/chi08-mark.pdf">interrupted</a> by your phone.</p>
<p>If you’re just watching TV, distractions (and refocusing) are no big deal. But if you’re driving a car, trying to study, at work, or spending time with your loved ones, it could lead to some fairly substantial problems.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/should-mobile-phones-be-banned-in-schools-we-asked-five-experts-98708">Should mobile phones be banned in schools? We asked five experts</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Two types of interference</h2>
<p>The pings from your phone are “exogenous interruptions”. In other words, something external, around you, has caused the interruption.</p>
<p>We can <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-46276-9_21">become conditioned</a> to feeling excited when we hear our phones ping. This is the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1360-0443.2002.00015.x">same pleasurable feeling</a> people who gamble can quickly become conditioned to at the sight or sound of a poker machine.</p>
<p>What if your phone is on silent? Doesn’t that solve the ping problem? Well, no.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497303/original/file-20221125-22-pcpvqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman working with smartphone on desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497303/original/file-20221125-22-pcpvqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497303/original/file-20221125-22-pcpvqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497303/original/file-20221125-22-pcpvqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497303/original/file-20221125-22-pcpvqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497303/original/file-20221125-22-pcpvqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497303/original/file-20221125-22-pcpvqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497303/original/file-20221125-22-pcpvqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Is your phone on silent? You can still get distracted.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-writing-on-a-notebook-beside-teacup-and-tablet-computer-733856/">Tirachard Kumtanom/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That’s another type of interruption, an internal (or endogenous) interruption.</p>
<p>Think of every time you were working on a task but your attention drifted to your phone. You may have fought the urge to pick it up and see what was happening online, but you probably checked anyway.</p>
<p>In this situation, we can become so strongly conditioned to expect a reward each time we look at our phone we don’t need to wait for a ping to trigger the effect. </p>
<p>These impulses are powerful. Just reading this article about checking your phone may make you feel like … checking your phone.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/phubbing-snubbing-your-loved-ones-for-your-phone-can-do-more-damage-than-you-realise-194039">'Phubbing': snubbing your loved ones for your phone can do more damage than you realise</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Give your brain a break</h2>
<p>What do all these interruptions mean for cognition and wellbeing? </p>
<p>There’s increasing evidence push notifications are associated with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352853217300159">decreased productivity</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2451958820300051">poorer concentration</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927537116300136">increased distraction</a> at work and school. </p>
<p>But is there any evidence our brain is working harder to manage the frequent switches in attention? </p>
<p>One study of people’s brain waves <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/cin/2016/5718580/">found</a> those who describe themselves as heavy smartphone users were more sensitive to push notifications than ones who said they were light users. </p>
<p>After hearing a push notification, heavy users were significantly worse at recovering their concentration on a task than lighter users. Although push notification interrupted concentration for both groups, the heavy users took much longer to regain focus. </p>
<p>Frequent interruptions from your phone can also leave you <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563219302596">feeling stressed</a> by a need to respond. Frequent smartphone interruptions are also associated with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360131519301319">increased FOMO</a> (fear of missing out). </p>
<p>If you get distracted by your phone after responding to a notification, any subsequent <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2050157921993896">procrastination</a> in returning to a task can also leave you feeling guilty or frustrated.</p>
<p>There’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563219300883">certainly evidence</a> suggesting the longer you spend using your phone in unproductive ways, the lower you tend to rate your wellbeing. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/constantly-texting-your-friends-about-problems-may-be-increasing-your-anxiety-83960">Constantly texting your friends about problems may be increasing your anxiety</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How can I stop?</h2>
<p>We know switching your phone to silent isn’t going to magically fix the problem, especially if you’re already a frequent checker. </p>
<p>What’s needed is behaviour change, and that’s hard. It can take several attempts to see lasting change. If you have ever tried to quit smoking, lose weight, or start an exercise program you’ll know what I mean.</p>
<p>Start by turning off all non-essential notifications. Then here are some things to try if you want to reduce the number of times you check your phone:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>charge your phone overnight in a different room to your bedroom. Notifications can prevent you falling asleep and can repeatedly rouse you from essential sleep throughout the night</p></li>
<li><p>interrupt the urge to check and actively decide if it’s going to benefit you, in that moment. For example, as you turn to reach for your phone, stop and ask yourself if this action serves a purpose other than distraction</p></li>
<li><p>try the <a href="https://www.themuse.com/advice/take-it-from-someone-who-hates-productivity-hacksthe-pomodoro-technique-actually-works#:%7E:text=The%20Pomodoro%20Technique%20is%20a,are%20referred%20to%20as%20pomodoros">Pomodoro method</a> to stay focused on a task. This involves breaking your concentration time up into manageable chunks (for example, 25 minutes) then rewarding yourself with a short break (for instance, to check your phone) between chunks. Gradually increase the length of time between rewards. Gradually re-learning to sustain your attention on any task can take a while if you’re a high-volume checker.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-can-your-brain-be-full-40844">Health Check: can your brain be 'full'?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon Horwood does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Your phone doesn’t even need to ping for you to be distracted. Here’s how to reclaim your focus.Sharon Horwood, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1950592022-11-22T19:25:09Z2022-11-22T19:25:09ZHow to make 5G less expensive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496522/original/file-20221121-21-et1p31.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3765%2C1238&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">5G can also be deployed in 'private' networks, but it is still very expensive. Solutions for both private and public networks.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/fr/image-vector/antenna-silhouettes-set-isolated-on-white-1822084934">Nosyrevy/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The 5th generation of mobile communications, 5G has arrived and it has brought us mostly <a href="https://www.ookla.com/articles/5g-drives-french-digital-transformation-q1-2022">higher throughputs</a> and helped operators to satisfy the ever-increasing demand for <a href="https://www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/">mobile data traffic</a>. This first wave of 5G uses the so-called “non-standalone mode”, which means that it still depends on existing 4G networks for coverage and control, so some of the advanced features of 5G are not yet available.</p>
<p>Operators are already working on the roll out of the second wave of 5G, which will be able to operate in a standalone mode, independently of 4G. Only this standalone mode will be able to reduce the latency of the network (the delay between the user’s data request and the actual delivery of that data) and will thus be able to support applications like augmented reality, e-health, and cooperative cars.</p>
<p>Another advantage of standalone 5G is the possibility to deploy private 5G networks for specific use cases, such as industrial automation, where robots and vehicles need to be controlled in real-time. This time-sensitive communication requires high speed and reliability that today’s 4G and wifi networks, despite being state of the art, are not able to deliver.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/open-ran/heres-how-much-5g-wireless-network-really-costs/d/d-id/769114">today’s 5G equipment is much more expensive than its 4G counterpart</a>, especially the part called “radio access network” (RAN), which serves to communicate between terminals using radio waves. Building private 5G deployments is thus very pricey. Moreover, today there are only a handful of manufacturers of RAN equipment and their products are, as is traditional in the industry, proprietary and closed, making it hard to adapt them to specific requirements of private 5G networks.</p>
<h2>Opening up Radio Access Network equipment</h2>
<p>One promising solution to these problems is the “open RAN architecture”. This breaks down the traditional components of a RAN into a few smaller components, with openly defined interfaces between them (see Figure 1). This “split architecture” allows more flexible deployments that can be adapted to different use cases, such as low latency or high throughput. </p>
<p>Further, the open RAN design introduces the so-called RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC), which can be used to control and optimize the RAN in an intelligent, agile, and programmable way. This can be used for example to optimize the quality of service or quality of experience for different user groups with different requirements (such as video streaming or gaming), optimize coverage and network throughput by traffic steering or coverage optimization. In doing so, the <a href="https://www.rcrwireless.com/20211104/open_ran/what-is-a-ran-intelligent-controller-ric">intelligent controller can also exploit feedback from the RAN</a> and use methods from machine learning and artificial intelligence for optimization.</p>
<p>In an open RAN design, interfaces between the different elements as well as real-time control and management and operation are openly defined by standardization bodies such as the <a href="http://www.o-ran.org">O-RAN Alliance</a> or the 3rd generation partnership project <a href="http://www.3gpp.org">3GPP</a>. This makes is possible to mix and match components from potentially different vendors, thus increasing competition and reducing costs. It also reduces the dependency of a customer on a vendor for products, so he can easily switch to another, potentially cheaper, vendor.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496756/original/file-20221122-24-mlanyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496756/original/file-20221122-24-mlanyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496756/original/file-20221122-24-mlanyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496756/original/file-20221122-24-mlanyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496756/original/file-20221122-24-mlanyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1085&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496756/original/file-20221122-24-mlanyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1363&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496756/original/file-20221122-24-mlanyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/496756/original/file-20221122-24-mlanyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1363&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Figure 1: Open RAN architecture with open radio unit (O-RU), open distributed unit (O-DU), open centralized unit (O-CU) and the RAN intelligent controller (RIC). The O-CU can serve multiple O-DUs in a region and typically is deployed in a local data center or a central office. The O-DU can serve multiple O-RUs and can be deployed in a street cabinet, a building or on a floor of a multi-story building. Each of the O-RUs must be collocated to an antenna, which serves a specific geographic area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elsa Couderc, Florian Kaltenberger</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Increased use of open-source software</h2>
<p>Another key advantage of the open RAN architecture is that all the elements – except for the radio unit – can be implemented as “virtual network functions” – that is, software – that can potentially run on general-purpose computing and networking environments, or even on the cloud. Such deployments are thus sometime called “virtualized RAN” or “cloud RAN”. This makes it possible to deploy such networks on existing IT infrastructure of factories, business parks or hospitals, which is another important cost-reducing factor.</p>
<p>Since virtual network functions are basically software, the next natural step to bring down costs is to use open-source software for these functions. Open source has already penetrated much of mobile radio networks. Indeed, the majority of smartphones today use Android as an operating system, which is based on open-source Linux. There is also a plethora of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389128620311786">open-source software available</a> to run and manage cloud and telecom environments.</p>
<p>On the side of the RAN, the <a href="https://www.openairinterface.org">OpenAirInterface (OAI) project</a> is worth mentioning as it is the most complete implementation of 5G networks today and lets you run a complete network on general purpose computing and radio infrastructure. Initially created for academic and research purposes, it is currently gaining significant traction and is finding its way into some products. However, there is still some work to make it compatible to O-RAN specifications and to improve the stability to make it ready for real deployments.</p>
<p>Open source is also a very good method to increase security and trust into mobile networks. Most open-source projects are managed by independent non-profit organizations, which continuously test and analyze the code for functionality, performance and security, so it is hard to introduce potential security threats and backdoors.</p>
<p>Last, but not least, open source software makes it easier for new players and startups to enter the 5G market, as they do not have to develop their products from scratch and benefit from other developments in the community. More startups also means more innovation and competition and thus will ultimately bring down the costs of private 5G even more. Think of how the Android operating system, which is also open source, resulted in the creation a wide range of new and cheaper mobile devices.</p>
<p>Open RAN products are still in their infancy and not yet ready for large-scale commercial deployments, but there are however promising field trials happening in different parts of the world. For example, the French operator Orange is has deployed an <a href="https://www.usinenouvelle.com/editorial/comment-orange-se-prepare-a-la-revolution-open-ran-des-reseaux-mobiles.N1795202">experimental open RAN network</a> in Lannion and Chatillon. Moreover, different studies <a href="https://go.abiresearch.com/lp-open-ran-market-reality-and-misconceptions">suggest that the open RAN market will outgrow the traditional RAN market for private 5G networks</a> as early as 2024 and for public networks around 2030.</p>
<p>In conclusion, open RAN and open source are a perfect combination to bring down costs of 5G networks while at the same time providing contributing to build sovereign networks that are independent of a particular vendor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Florian Kaltenberger is principal investigator in the 5G-OPERA project which is funded by the French government in the framework of France 2030. He is also a strategic advisor for the startup firecell.io.</span></em></p>The deployment of 5G networks depends on the compatibility of the instruments and protocols of a handful of industry players.Florian Kaltenberger, Associate professor en communications sans fils, EURECOM, Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927082022-10-24T10:58:30Z2022-10-24T10:58:30ZIs your fixed broadband bill about to go up? How to protect yourself from inflation-busting rate hikes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490852/original/file-20221020-26-ukyq9w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C19%2C6564%2C4326&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-man-calculating-bills-pay-while-1932394091">astarot / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Inflation has caused the sharpest rise in food prices in the UK in 40 years, the latest <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/september2022">official figures</a> show. But it’s not just food costs that are soaring – or <a href="https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/cost-of-living/coventry-mum-scared-turn-lights-25292956">energy prices</a>, for that matter. Consumer price inflation could also impact bills for services like internet and <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/mobile-network-price-rises-which-providers-are-best-and-worst-for-inflation-2-aNR6o4U0pAOk">mobile phones</a>. </p>
<p>Many people aren’t particularly careful about the contracts they sign for such services. It’s common not to read through the clauses written in the small print. When I checked my broadband contract recently, I was certainly surprised to find that I had signed up to an annual price increase in line with the January 2023 inflation rate plus an additional 3.7%.</p>
<p>While this would be a noticeable increase at any time, inflation is expected to be just under 10% in January 2023, according to the Bank of England. This could increase my bill by close to 14% when my contract rolls over next year. </p>
<p>These so-called “inflation-plus” clauses peg contracts to the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/august2022">Consumer Price Index</a> rate of inflation plus an additional amount – in my case, 3.7% of my current monthly broadband rate. For some broadband customers, these clauses could add more than £100 to their annual bills next year, <a href="https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/broadband-customers-price-hikes-2023-aNjPe0G01Yko">consumer watchdog Which?</a> says.</p>
<p>Inflation-plus clauses are legal. They are written in the contract (although often in tiny font) and by signing we accept them. But they aren’t fair and the government, as well as regulators, have a responsibility to examine this rising cost of living issue.</p>
<p>The first part of the clause – the inflation-linked element – is called “full price indexation to current or past inflation”. It is a strategy that is often used to update price contracts, particularly when <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304393212001146">inflation is high</a>, to protect those signing the contracts from rising costs. </p>
<p>The second part of the clause – the additional percentage above inflation – is a phenomenon that has not been labelled by macroeconomists yet, as far as I’m aware. But after calculating the effect of an inflation plus 3.7% increase on my bill, I like to think of it as “turbo price indexation”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Overhead shot of three hands holding coins, calculator and piggy bank." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490848/original/file-20221020-17-nflwa6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C20%2C6720%2C4446&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490848/original/file-20221020-17-nflwa6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490848/original/file-20221020-17-nflwa6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490848/original/file-20221020-17-nflwa6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490848/original/file-20221020-17-nflwa6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490848/original/file-20221020-17-nflwa6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490848/original/file-20221020-17-nflwa6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Counting the cost of living.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-girl-her-parents-coins-piggy-1120917476">Pixel-Shot / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is indexation?</h2>
<p>During periods of rising inflation, companies need to make frequent price adjustments to offset increases in their own costs. Indexation provides <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304387894900221#:%7E:text=Indexation%20does%20help%20to%20explain%20the%20costs%20of,than%20in%20the%20standard%20fixed%20price%20staggering%20model.">a simple rule of thumb</a> to help companies update their prices between optimal adjustments designed to maximise profits. </p>
<p>There are different kinds of indexation. Full indexation to current inflation, for example, aligns prices exactly with the current rate of inflation. Other types may rise with inflation but at a lower rate – or a higher rate, as with turbo price indexation on inflation-plus contracts.</p>
<p>Indexation isn’t only used by firms providing goods and services. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/101/3/543/1899653">Workers</a>, as well as landlords and some mortgage lenders, also use this strategy to keep pace with changing costs. But the stronger the power of the person or the organisation renegotiating a particular contract – whether that’s a worker discussing a job contract or a firm setting new prices for its services – the easier it is to negotiate for inflation indexation. </p>
<p>So when inflation increases, indexation protects businesses against rising costs. But when it comes to contracts for services like broadband, consumers typically do not have the same bargaining powers as large companies. Further, since most job contracts are not fully indexed, wages do not increase to match the increase in our bills. </p>
<p>This is one of the reasons why high inflation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/12/labour-pledges-cheap-broadband-tariff-for-low-income-families">can hurt low income households</a> more. Unlike higher earners that often have more bargaining power to negotiate for more pay when prices rise, the wages of those on lower incomes are typically not fully indexed to inflation, never mind turbo-indexed. This means that these clauses may not only <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304393205000802">increase inflation</a>, but can also exacerbate <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/articles/householdinflationandincomeinequalityintheuk/2020-11-02">income inequality</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two people in discussions about and pointing at a contract on a desk in front of them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490850/original/file-20221020-12-jqpu8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490850/original/file-20221020-12-jqpu8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490850/original/file-20221020-12-jqpu8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490850/original/file-20221020-12-jqpu8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490850/original/file-20221020-12-jqpu8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490850/original/file-20221020-12-jqpu8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490850/original/file-20221020-12-jqpu8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Contract renegotiation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/loan-business-finance-businessman-explain-report-1943883607">Panumas Yanuthai / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Wage price spiral</h2>
<p>Of course, if inflation remains high for a long time, workers may start to organise via unions to ask for their pay to be linked to inflation. We have seen this in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/10/we-want-to-get-on-with-what-we-love-what-union-activists-are-fighting-for">recent months</a>. In this situation, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jun/20/would-a-wageprice-spiral-cause-inflation-to-get-out-of-control">governments often worry</a> about creating a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article/101/3/543/1899653">wage price spiral</a> in which increased wages encourage more spending, pushing inflation up further and causing more wage negotiations. </p>
<p>And by updating prices by more than the rate of inflation, these turbo-price clauses could contribute further to such a spiral, worsening the economic environment. Indeed, research shows that the use of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0304387894900221#:%7E:text=Indexation%20does%20help%20to%20explain%20the%20costs%20of,than%20in%20the%20standard%20fixed%20price%20staggering%20model.">indexation</a> makes it more difficult to bring inflation down in this kind of scenario.</p>
<p>Economic policy can be used to address this situation. But in a period of high inflation and low GDP growth, a government’s fiscal policy might be at odds with a country’s monetary authority or central bank, which typically wants to cut inflation. This is because the government can benefit when high inflation reduces the cost of a tax cut or an increase in its spending. This is the situation right now in the UK. </p>
<h2>What can you do?</h2>
<p>An independent regulator such as the UK <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/competition-and-markets-authority">Competition and Markets Authority</a> could help consumers battle rising prices linked to indexation. <a href="https://users.ugent.be/%7Egpeersma/gert_files/research/DSPW_JM.pdf">Research</a> has found that wage indexation happens less when markets are more competitive. Similarly, price indexation should be lower in highly competitive markets. </p>
<p>In other words, more instances of price indexation clauses may signal too little competition in a sector, allowing companies to push up prices. The Competition and Markets Authority is responsible for investigating such concerns about market structure, with the aim of increasing competition and protecting consumers.</p>
<p>Otherwise, just like workers, consumers can negotiate to reduce inflationary price increases in the costs of services like internet or mobile phone coverage. Not everyone has the time, patience or confidence to call providers to secure a less expensive deal at the end of a contract. But research shows that the people that stay on more expensive rates are usually <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11151-015-9480-1">funding the cheaper deals</a> of savvy consumers that are prepared to haggle.</p>
<p>With more savvy consumers around, companies would not find it as convenient to introduce such clauses, since they would not generate enough additional profits from these turbo price increases.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192708/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lorenza Rossi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some contracts are set to rise by more than inflation, here’s how to reduce the cost of living impact of such bills.Lorenza Rossi, Professor in Economics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1899442022-10-17T12:31:33Z2022-10-17T12:31:33ZWhat is Fog Reveal? A legal scholar explains the app some police forces are using to track people without a warrant<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489290/original/file-20221011-20-y3vdkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4031%2C2999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Rockingham County Sheriff's Department in Wentworth, N.C., is among the law enforcement agencies the AP found using the Fog Reveal location tracking tool.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Investigation-Tracked-Fog-Reveal/45d5e3941cf24040a50d9e16e2b1efd2/photo">AP Photo/Allen G. Breed</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Government agencies and private security companies in the U.S. have found a cost-effective way to engage in warrantless <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/police-mass-surveillance-fog-reveal-tech-tool/">surveillance of individuals, groups and places</a>: a pay-for-access web tool called Fog Reveal. </p>
<p>The tool enables law enforcement officers to see “patterns of life” – where and when people work and live, with whom they associate and what places they visit. The tool’s maker, Fog Data Science, claims to have billions of data points from <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22187494-chino_2019-20_attachments#document/p25">over 250 million U.S. mobile devices</a>.</p>
<p>Fog Reveal came to light when the <a href="https://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> (EFF), a nonprofit that advocates for online civil liberties, was investigating location data brokers and uncovered the program through a Freedom of Information Act request. EFF’s <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/08/inside-fog-data-science-secretive-company-selling-mass-surveillance-local-police">investigation</a> found that Fog Reveal enables law enforcement and private companies to identify and track people and monitor specific places and events, like rallies, protests, places of worship and health care clinics. The Associated Press found that nearly two dozen government agencies across the country <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-police-government-surveillance-d395409ef5a8c6c3f6cdab5b1d0e27ef">have contracted with Fog Data Science to use the tool</a>.</p>
<p>Government use of Fog Reveal highlights a problematic difference between data privacy law and electronic surveillance law in the U.S. It is a difference that creates a sort of loophole, permitting enormous quantities of personal data to be collected, aggregated and used in ways that are not transparent to most persons. That difference is far more important in the wake of the Supreme Court’s <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392">Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization</a> decision, which revoked the constitutional right to an abortion. Dobbs puts the privacy of reproductive health information and related data points, including relevant location data, in significant jeopardy.</p>
<p>The trove of personal data Fog Data Science is selling, and government agencies are buying, exists because ever-advancing technologies in smart devices collect increasingly vast amounts of intimate data. Without meaningful choice or control on the user’s part, smart device and app makers collect, use and sell that data. It is a technological and legal dilemma that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/state-of-privacy-laws-in-us/">threatens individual privacy and liberty</a>, and it is a problem <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2905131">I have worked</a> on for years as a practicing lawyer, researcher and law professor.</p>
<h2>Government surveillance</h2>
<p>U.S. intelligence agencies have long used technology to engage in surveillance programs like <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2013/7/17/4517480/nsa-spying-prism-surveillance-cheat-sheet">PRISM</a>, collecting data about individuals from tech companies like Google, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/timeline-nsa-domestic-surveillance-bush-obama/">particularly since 9/11</a> – ostensibly for national security reasons. These programs typically are authorized by and subject to the <a href="https://bja.ojp.gov/program/it/privacy-civil-liberties/authorities/statutes/1286">Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act</a> and the <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm">Patriot Act</a>. While there is critical <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/national-security/privacy-and-surveillance/surveillance-under-patriot-act">debate about the merits and abuses</a> of these laws and programs, they operate under a modicum of court and congressional oversight. </p>
<p>Domestic law enforcement agencies also use technology for surveillance, but generally with greater restrictions. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution’s <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/fourth_amendment">Fourth Amendment</a>, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure, and federal electronic surveillance law require domestic law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before tracking someone’s location <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/10-1259">using a GPS device</a> or <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf">cell site location information</a>. </p>
<p>Fog Reveal is something else entirely. The tool – made possible by smart device technology and that difference between data privacy and electronic surveillance law protections – allows domestic law enforcement and private entities to buy access to compiled data about most U.S. mobile phones, including location data. It enables tracking and monitoring of people on a massive scale without court oversight or public transparency. The company has made few public comments, but details of its technology have come out through the referenced EFF and AP investigations.</p>
<h2>Fog Reveal’s data</h2>
<p>Every smartphone has an <a href="https://revealmobile.com/how-to-find-your-mobile-ad-id/">advertising ID</a> – a series of numbers that uniquely identifies the device. Supposedly, advertising IDs are anonymous and not linked directly to the subscriber’s name. In reality, that may not be the case.</p>
<p>Private companies and apps harness smartphones’ GPS capabilities, which provide detailed location data, and advertising IDs, so that wherever a smartphone goes and any time a user downloads an app or visits a website, it creates a trail. Fog Data Science <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-police-government-surveillance-d395409ef5a8c6c3f6cdab5b1d0e27ef">says it obtains this “commercially available data” from data brokers</a>, permitting the tool to follow devices through their advertising IDs. While these numbers do not contain the name of the phone’s user, they can easily be traced to homes and workplaces to help police identify the user and establish <a href="https://medium.com/the-state-and-future-of-geoint-2017-report/activity-based-intelligence-understanding-patterns-of-life-481c78b7d5ae">pattern-of-life analyses</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a screenshot showing a text box with a row of icons at the top over a satellite view of a neighborhood" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489288/original/file-20221011-13-f8rcth.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fog Reveal allows users to see that a specific mobile phone was at a specific place at a specific time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/08/inside-fog-data-science-secretive-company-selling-mass-surveillance-local-police">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Law enforcement use of Fog Reveal puts a spotlight on that loophole between U.S. data privacy law and electronic surveillance law. The hole is so large that – despite Supreme Court rulings requiring a warrant for law enforcement to use GPS and cell site data to track persons – it is not clear whether law enforcement use of Fog Reveal is unlawful.</p>
<h2>Electronic surveillance vs. data privacy</h2>
<p>Electronic surveillance law protections and data privacy mean two very different things in the U.S. There are robust federal electronic surveillance laws governing domestic surveillance. The <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-119">Electronic Communications Privacy Act</a> <a href="https://bja.ojp.gov/program/it/privacy-civil-liberties/authorities/statutes/1285#:%7E:text=Title%20I%20of%20the%20ECPA,prohibits%20the%20use%20of%20illegally">regulates when and how</a> domestic law enforcement and private entities can “wiretap,” i.e., intercept a person’s communications, or track a person’s location.</p>
<p>Coupled with Fourth Amendment protections, ECPA generally requires law enforcement agencies to get a warrant based on probable cause to intercept someone’s communications or track someone’s location using GPS and cell site location information. Also, ECPA permits an officer to get a warrant only when the officer is investigating certain crimes, so the law limits its own authority to permit surveillance of only serious crimes. Violation of ECPA is a crime.</p>
<p>The vast majority of states have laws that mirror ECPA, although some states, like Maryland, afford citizens more protections from unwanted surveillance.</p>
<p>The Fog Reveal tool raises enormous privacy and civil liberties concerns, yet what it is selling – the ability to track most persons at all times – may be permissible because <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/08/data-privacy-bill-would-give-you-more-control-over-info-collected-about-you/2/">the U.S. lacks a comprehensive federal data privacy law</a>. ECPA permits interceptions and electronic surveillance when a person consents to that surveillance. </p>
<p>With little in the way of federal data privacy laws, once someone clicks “I agree” on a pop-up box, there are few limitations on private entities’ collection, use and aggregation of user data, including location data. This is the loophole between data privacy and electronic surveillance law protections, and it creates the framework that underpins the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-015-0191-0">massive U.S. data sharing market</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xeyp-sEDGvk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">AP investigative journalist Garance Burke explains how she and her colleagues uncovered law enforcement use of Fog Reveal.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The need for data privacy law</h2>
<p>Without robust federal data privacy safeguards, smart device manufacturers, app makers and data brokers will continue, unfettered, to utilize smart devices’ sophisticated sensing technologies and GPS capabilities to collect and commercially aggregate vast quantities of intimate and revealing data. As it stands, that data trove may not be protected from law enforcement agencies. But the permitted commercial use of advertising IDs to track devices and users without meaningful notice and consent could change if the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-us-data-privacy-bill-aims-to-give-you-more-control-over-information-collected-about-you-and-make-businesses-change-how-they-handle-data-188279">American Data Privacy Protection Act</a>, approved by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce <a href="https://www.natlawreview.com/article/house-committee-passes-comprehensive-federal-privacy-legislation">by a vote of 53-2</a> on July 20, 2022, passes.</p>
<p>ADPPA’s future is uncertain. The app industry is strongly resisting any curtailment of its data collection practices, and some states are resisting ADPPA’s federal preemption provision, which could minimize the protections afforded via state data privacy laws. For example, Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has said lawmakers will need to address concerns from California that the bill overrides the state’s stronger protections <a href="https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/9122">before she will call for a vote on ADPPA</a>.</p>
<p>The stakes are high. Recent law enforcement investigations highlight the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/10/facebook-user-data-abortion-nebraska-police">real-world consequences</a> that flow from the lack of robust data privacy protection. Given the Dobbs ruling, these situations will proliferate absent congressional action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189944/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Current member of IEEE-USA, serving on its AI Policy Committee, and Co-Chair of its Privacy, Equity, and Justice in AI Subcommittee.
Prior grant research work includes: funding from National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the National Initiatives in Cyber Education to develop an open access course, "Cyberlaw: Policy & Operations" since published nationwide by NSA; and funding from U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services to analyze, via published legal memos, issues of privacy, Constitutional rights, and other legal issues in the use of UAVs (drones) by domestic law enforcement. </span></em></p>Some US law enforcement agencies are using a commercial app that tracks people all day long via their phones – without a court order or oversight.Anne Toomey McKenna, Visiting Professor of Law, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1890992022-09-27T12:28:00Z2022-09-27T12:28:00ZThe same app can pose a bigger security and privacy threat depending on the country where you download it, study finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486346/original/file-20220923-13704-kn2fv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C141%2C3552%2C2478&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Same app, same app store, different risks if you download it in, say, Tunisia rather than in Germany.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/blinkee-city-rental-scooter-is-seen-in-warsaw-poland-on-news-photo/1031626648">NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Google and Apple have removed hundreds of apps from their app stores at the request of governments around the world, creating regional disparities in access to mobile apps at a time when many <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/267209/global-app-economy/">economies are becoming increasingly dependent on them</a>. </p>
<p>The mobile phone giants have removed over <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/garena-free-fire-to-tiktok-all-the-273-chinese-apps-that-indian-govt-banned-so-far-1913141-2022-02-15">200 Chinese apps</a>, including widely downloaded apps like TikTok, at the Indian government’s request in recent years. Similarly, the companies removed LinkedIn, an essential app for professional networking, from Russian app stores <a href="https://fortune.com/2017/01/08/russia-linkedin-google-apple/">at the Russian government’s request</a>. </p>
<p>However, access to apps is just one concern. <a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/7550024?hl=en">Developers also regionalize apps</a>, meaning they produce different versions for different countries. This raises the question of whether these apps differ in their security and privacy capabilities based on region. </p>
<p>In a perfect world, access to apps and app security and privacy capabilities would be consistent everywhere. Popular mobile apps <a href="https://iapp.org/news/a/the-case-for-a-global-data-privacy-adequacy-standard/">should be available without increasing the risk</a> that users are spied on or tracked based on what country they’re in, especially given that not every country has strong data protection regulations.</p>
<p>My colleagues and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=mWT_pCcAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">I</a> recently studied the <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity22/presentation/kumar">availability and privacy policies</a> of thousands of globally popular apps on <a href="https://play.google.com/about/howplayworks/">Google Play</a>, the <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-google-play-1616720">app store for Android devices</a>, in 26 countries. We found differences in app availability, security and privacy. </p>
<p>While our study corroborates reports of takedowns due to government requests, we also found many differences introduced by app developers. We found instances of apps with settings and disclosures that expose users to higher or lower security and privacy risks depending on the country in which they’re downloaded.</p>
<h2>Geoblocked apps</h2>
<p>The countries and one special administrative region in our study are diverse in location, population and gross domestic product. They include the U.S., Germany, Hungary, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Hong Kong and India. We also included countries like Iran, Zimbabwe and Tunisia, where it was difficult to collect data. We studied 5,684 globally popular apps, each with over 1 million installs, from the top 22 <a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9859673?hl=en#zippy=%2Capps">app categories</a>, including Books and Reference, Education, Medical, and News and Magazines. </p>
<p>Our study showed high amounts of geoblocking, with 3,672 of 5,684 globally popular apps blocked in at least one of our 26 countries. Blocking by developers was significantly higher than takedowns requested by governments in all our countries and app categories. We found that Iran and Tunisia have the highest blocking rates, with apps like Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, Flipboard and Google Books all unavailable for download.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486347/original/file-20220923-214-6f3tzz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="three text boxes stacked vertically" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486347/original/file-20220923-214-6f3tzz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486347/original/file-20220923-214-6f3tzz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486347/original/file-20220923-214-6f3tzz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486347/original/file-20220923-214-6f3tzz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486347/original/file-20220923-214-6f3tzz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486347/original/file-20220923-214-6f3tzz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486347/original/file-20220923-214-6f3tzz.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=589&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attempting to download the LinkedIn app in the Google Play app store is a different experience in, from top to bottom, the U.S., Iran and Russia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usenix.org/system/files/sec22-kumar.pdf">Kumar et al.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found regional overlap in the apps that are geoblocked. In European countries in our study – Germany, Hungary, Ireland and the U.K. – 479 of the same apps were geoblocked. Eight of those, including Blued and USA Today News, were blocked only in the European Union, possibly because of the region’s <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/">General Data Protection Regulation</a>. Turkey, Ukraine and Russia also show similar blocking patterns, with high blocking of virtual private network apps in Turkey and Russia, which is consistent with the recent upsurge of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/18/russia-growing-internet-isolation-control-censorship">surveillance</a> laws.</p>
<p>Of the 61 country-specific takedowns by Google, 36 were unique to South Korea, including 17 gambling and gaming apps taken down in accordance with the <a href="https://www.hapskorea.com/south-koreas-complex-relationship-with-gambling/">national prohibition on online gambling</a>. While the Indian government’s takedown of Chinese apps happened with full public disclosure, surprisingly most of the takedowns we observed occurred without much public awareness or debate. </p>
<h2>Differences in security and privacy</h2>
<p>The apps we downloaded from Google Play also showed differences based on country in their security and privacy capabilities. One hundred twenty-seven apps varied in what the apps were allowed to access on users’ mobile phones, 49 of which had additional permissions deemed “dangerous” by Google. Apps in Bahrain, Tunisia and Canada requested the most additional dangerous permissions. </p>
<p>Three VPN apps enable clear text communication in some countries, which allows unauthorized access to users’ communications. One hundred and eighteen apps varied in the number of ad trackers included in an app in some countries, with the categories Games, Entertainment and Social, with Iran and Ukraine having the most increases in the number of ad trackers compared to the baseline number common to all countries. </p>
<p>One hundred and three apps have differences based on country in their privacy policies. Users in countries not covered by data protection regulations, such as GDPR in the EU and the California Consumer Privacy Act in the U.S., are at higher privacy risk. For instance, 71 apps available from Google Play have clauses to comply with GDPR only in the EU and CCPA only in the U.S. Twenty-eight apps that use dangerous permissions make no mention of it, despite <a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10144311?visit_id=637995492293465522-1318183419&rd=1">Google’s policy</a> requiring them to do so. </p>
<h2>The role of app stores</h2>
<p>App stores allow developers to target their apps to users based on a wide array of factors, including their country and their device’s specific features. Though Google has taken <a href="https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2021/05/new-safety-section-in-google-play-will.html">some steps toward transparency</a> in its app store, our research shows that there are shortcomings in Google’s auditing of the app ecosystem, some of which could put users’ security and privacy at risk.</p>
<p>Potentially also as a result of app store policies in some countries, app stores that specialize in specific regions of the world are becoming increasingly popular. However, these app stores may not have adequate vetting policies, thereby allowing altered versions of apps to reach users. For example, a national government could pressure a developer to provide a version of an app that includes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/SP40000.2020.00072">backdoor access</a>. There is no straightforward way for users to distinguish an altered app from an unaltered one.</p>
<p>Our research provides several recommendations to app store proprietors to address the issues we found:
</p><ul>
<li>Better moderate their country targeting features
</li><li>Provide detailed transparency reports on app takedowns
</li><li>Vet apps for differences based on country or region
</li><li>Push for transparency from developers on their need for the differences
</li><li>Host app privacy policies themselves to ensure their availability when the policies are blocked in certain countries
</li></ul><p></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kumar is employed by Skyhigh Security. She conducted and published the research reported in this article before joining the company.</span></em></p>Mobile apps are sometimes ‘regionalized’ to better serve the needs of users, functioning differently in, for example, China than in Canada. But some of those differences pose security and privacy risks.Renuka Kumar, Ph.D. student in Computer Science and Engineering, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1885852022-09-20T04:19:41Z2022-09-20T04:19:41ZHere’s the real reason to turn on aeroplane mode when you fly<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484174/original/file-20220913-2241-id16e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=74%2C216%2C5466%2C3456&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/p9vr45T2scg">Blake Guidry/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We all know the routine by heart: “Please ensure your seats are in the upright position, tray tables stowed, window shades are up, laptops are stored in the overhead bins and electronic devices are set to flight mode”.</p>
<p>Now, the first four are reasonable, right? Window shades need to be up so we can see if there’s an emergency, such as fire. Tray tables need to be stowed and seats upright so we can get out of the row quickly. Laptops can become projectiles in an emergency, as the seat back pockets are not strong enough to contain them.</p>
<p>And mobile phones need to be set to flight mode so they can’t <em>cause</em> an emergency for the aeroplane, right? Well, it depends whom you ask.</p>
<h2>Technology has advanced a great deal</h2>
<p>Aviation navigation and communication relies on radio services, which have been coordinated to minimise interference <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050232846/downloads/20050232846.pdf">since the 1920s</a>.</p>
<p>The digital technology currently in use is much more advanced than some of the older analogue technologies we used even 60 years ago. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146521008851">Research has shown</a> personal electronic devices can emit a signal within the same frequency band as the aircraft’s communications and navigation systems, creating what is known as electromagnetic interference.</p>
<p>But in 1992, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/5947-real-reason-cell-phone-banned-airlines.html">the US Federal Aviation Authority</a> and Boeing, <a href="https://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_10/interfere_textonly.html">in an independent study</a>, investigated the use of electronic devices on aircraft interference and found no issues with computers or other personal electronic devices during non-critical phases of flight. (Take-offs and landings are considered the critical phases.) </p>
<p>The US Federal Communications Commission also began to create <a href="https://www.livescience.com/5947-real-reason-cell-phone-banned-airlines.html">reserved frequency bandwidths</a> for different uses – such as mobile phones and aircraft navigation and communications – so they do not interfere with one another. Governments around the globe developed the same <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20050232846/downloads/20050232846.pdf">strategies and policies to prevent interference</a> problems with aviation. In the EU, electronic devices have been <a href="https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/newsroom-and-events/news/easa-allows-electronic-devices-remain-and-connected-throughout-flight">allowed to stay on since 2014</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/using-your-phone-on-a-plane-is-safe-but-for-now-you-still-cant-make-calls-98136">Using your phone on a plane is safe – but for now you still can't make calls</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2.2 billion passengers</h2>
<p>Why then, with these global standards in place, has the aviation industry continued to ban the use of mobile phones? One of the problems lies with something you may not expect – <em>ground</em> interference.</p>
<p>Wireless networks are connected by <a href="https://www.livescience.com/5947-real-reason-cell-phone-banned-airlines.html">a series of towers</a>; the networks could become overloaded if passengers flying over these ground networks are all using their phones. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/564717/airline-industry-passenger-traffic-globally/">The number of passengers that flew in 2021</a> was over 2.2 billion, and that’s half of what the 2019 passenger numbers were. The wireless companies might have a point here. </p>
<p>Of course, when it comes to mobile networks, the biggest change in recent years is the move to a new standard. Current 5G wireless networks – desirable for their higher speed data transfer – have caused concern for many within the aviation industry.</p>
<p>Radio frequency bandwidth is limited, yet we are still trying to add more new devices to it. The aviation industry points out that the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146521008851">5G wireless network bandwidth spectrum</a> is remarkably close to the reserved aviation bandwidth spectrum, which may cause <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2304975-will-5g-mobile-networks-in-the-us-really-interfere-with-aircraft/">interference with navigation systems near airports</a> that assist with landing the aircraft.</p>
<p>Airport operators <a href="https://www.itnews.com.au/news/australian-airports-fret-over-5g-interference-582222">in Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.faa.gov/5g">the US</a> have voiced aviation safety concerns linked to 5G rollout, however it appears to have rolled out without such problems <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/19/business/5g-aviation-safety-europe/index.html">in the European Union</a>. Either way, it is prudent to limit mobile phone use on planes while issues around 5G are sorted out.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/could-5g-really-ground-planes-why-the-us-has-delayed-rolling-out-the-mobile-internet-technology-around-airports-175215">Could 5G really ground planes? Why the US has delayed rolling out the mobile internet technology around airports</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Ultimately, we can’t forget air rage</h2>
<p>Most airlines now provide customers with Wi-Fi services that are either pay-as-you-go or free. With new Wi-Fi technologies, passengers could theoretically use their mobile phones to <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8010762">make video calls with friends</a> or clients in-flight. </p>
<p>On a recent flight, I spoke with a cabin attendant and asked her opinion on phone use during flights. It would be an inconvenience for cabin crew to wait for passengers to finish their call to ask them if they would like any drinks or something to eat, she stated. On an airliner with 200+ passengers, in-flight service would take longer to complete if everyone was making phone calls. </p>
<p>For me, the problem with in-flight use of phones is more about the social experience of having 200+ people on a plane, and all potentially talking at once. In a time when disruptive passenger behaviour, including “air rage”, <a href="http://www.jairm.org/index.php/jairm/article/view/156">is increasingly frequent</a>, phone use in flight might be another trigger that changes the whole flight experience. </p>
<p>Disruptive behaviours take on various forms, from noncompliance to safety requirements such as not wearing seat belts, verbal altercations with fellow passengers and cabin crew, to physical altercations with passengers and cabin crews – typically identified as air rage. </p>
<p>In conclusion – in-flight use of phones does not currently impair the aircraft’s ability to operate. But cabin crews may prefer not to be delayed in providing in-flight service to all of the passengers – it’s a lot of people to serve. </p>
<p>However, 5G technology is encroaching on the radio bandwidth of aircraft navigation systems; we’ll need more research <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-5g-puts-airplanes-at-risk-an-electrical-engineer-explains-175306">to answer the 5G question</a> regarding interference with aircraft navigation during landings. Remember that when we are discussing the two most critical phases of flight, take-offs are optional – but landings are mandatory.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reducing-air-travel-by-small-amounts-each-year-could-level-off-the-climate-impact-171184">Reducing air travel by small amounts each year could level off the climate impact</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Doug Drury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is it true our phones are dangerous for aircraft navigation? An expert explains.Doug Drury, Professor/Head of Aviation, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1886372022-09-01T17:19:00Z2022-09-01T17:19:00ZWhy Canadians should be concerned about intensifying violence in Congo<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481583/original/file-20220829-9084-u3jh7b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1033%2C6907%2C3691&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People walk on the road near Kibumba, north of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, as they flee fighting between Congolese forces and M23 rebels in May 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/07/25/dr-congo-resurgent-m23-rebels-target-civilians">Escalating violence</a> in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) stems from <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/6/21/explainer-what-is-the-latest-conflict-in-the-drc">deep economic, political and geopolitical conflict</a> spanning almost three decades. </p>
<p>At the height of what’s been called by experts “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2011.631329">Africa’s World War</a>” at the turn of the 21st century, the conflict pitted Congolese government forces <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-democratic-republic-congo">supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe</a> against several opposition armed groups backed by Rwanda and Uganda. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-have-died-due-congos-fighting-scientists-battle-over-how-estimate-war-related">Numbers were difficult to verify</a>, ranging from 2.5 million to 5.4 million, but this period is often cited as the largest loss of life since the Second World War. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A soldier carrying a large weapon is seen against a backdrop of green mountains and clouds." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481581/original/file-20220829-17-ceklrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481581/original/file-20220829-17-ceklrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481581/original/file-20220829-17-ceklrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481581/original/file-20220829-17-ceklrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481581/original/file-20220829-17-ceklrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481581/original/file-20220829-17-ceklrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481581/original/file-20220829-17-ceklrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this October 2013 photo, a Congolese army soldier walks near the front line during fighting with rebels north of Goma, eastern Congo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Joseph Kay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was also widespread <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/10/democratic-republic-congo-ending-impunity-sexual-violence">rape and sexual violence</a>, <a href="https://www.unicef.org/drcongo/en/press-releases/thousands-children-continue-be-used-child-soldiers">child soldiering</a>, <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/558c0e039.pdf">forced displacement</a> and <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Countries/CD/UNJHROAccountabiliteReport2016_en.pdf">human rights abuses</a>. </p>
<p>Recent violence threatens <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/rwanda-and-drc-risk-war-new-m23-rebellion-emerges-explainer">fragile peace in the DRC</a> and the <a href="https://www.globalgreatlakes.org/agl/">African Great Lakes region</a>. But despite escalating death, displacement and fear, Canadian media have largely ignored the DRC conflict. </p>
<p>In addition to concern for human life, Canadians should care for three key reasons.</p>
<h2>1. Mineral extraction</h2>
<p>The increasing demand for mobile phones and electric vehicles is linking consumers to violent extraction in the DRC.</p>
<p>The country is rich in minerals and is the source of <a href="http://cegemi.com/index.php/environmental-threats-and-respiratory-health-in-kivu/">60 per cent of the world’s reserves of coltan</a>, which powers our cellular phones. It also <a href="https://www.mining-technology.com/analysis/kinshasa-africa-democratic-republic-congo-cobalt/#:%7E:text=The%20DRC%20produces%20more%20than,calling%20the%20%22new%20oil%22.">produces more than 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt</a>, used in electric car batteries. </p>
<p>The extraction of these minerals comes at great human cost. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-coltan-mining-in-the-drc-costs-people-and-the-environment-183159">What coltan mining in the DRC costs people and the environment</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Researchers have documented the use of <a href="https://issafrica.org/iss-today/child-miners-the-dark-side-of-the-drcs-coltan-wealth">child labour</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0139-4">environmental degradation</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2016.01.010">sexual violence</a> and <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/coltan-and-conflict-drc">economic rationale for war</a> — meaning some have profited from mineral exploitation and war <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/drc/overview">while the majority of the Congolese population lives in poverty</a>.</p>
<p>As consumers, Canadians should care about how our purchases are linked to violence and human rights abuses in a globalized world.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1564011318713131009"}"></div></p>
<h2>2. Canada supports peacekeeping in the DRC</h2>
<p>Canada <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence/services/operations/military-operations/current-operations/operation-crocodile.html">has contributed human</a> <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/country-pays/democratic_republic_congo-republique_democratique_congo/relations.aspx?lang=eng">and financial</a> resources to peacekeeping in the DRC.</p>
<p>Once <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/militarizing-peace-un-intervention-against-congos-terrorist-rebels">the largest and most expensive peacekeeping operation in the United Nations’ history</a>, the UN’s <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/monusco">current mandate</a> in the DRC has been scaled back. </p>
<p>Ongoing allegations of UN personnel involved in <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1101562">sexual exploitation</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/28/congo.unitednations">economic profiteering</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/protests-against-un-in-eastern-congo-highlight-peace-missions-crisis-of-legitimacy-187932">ineffectiveness</a> have turned the Congolese people against the UN.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-exploitation-by-un-peacekeepers-in-drc-fatherless-children-speak-for-first-time-about-the-pain-of-being-abandoned-188248">Sexual exploitation by UN peacekeepers in DRC: fatherless children speak for first time about the pain of being abandoned</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2022/08/18/DRC-MONUSCO-protests-peacekeeping?utm_source=The+New+Humanitarian&utm_campaign=2b6d4f9e15-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_ENGLISH_AFRICA&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d842d98289-2b6d4f9e15-29256293">Recent protests</a> have <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/31/un-peacekeepers-open-fire-in-dr-congo-causing-several-casualties">been violent</a>, resulting in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/aug/05/death-toll-reaches-36-in-eastern-drc-as-protesters-turn-on-un-peacekeepers">the deaths of 36 people, including four UN peacekeepers</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Police and protesters fight in a city street. Smoke is visible." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481579/original/file-20220829-18-cbnn39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C242%2C3000%2C1508&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/481579/original/file-20220829-18-cbnn39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481579/original/file-20220829-18-cbnn39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481579/original/file-20220829-18-cbnn39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481579/original/file-20220829-18-cbnn39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481579/original/file-20220829-18-cbnn39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/481579/original/file-20220829-18-cbnn39.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators clash with police during a protest against the United Nations peacekeeping force deployed in Congo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The UN has temporarily withdrawn from Butembo, a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/uns-congo-peacekeeping-mission-pulls-out-major-eastern-city-2022-08-18/">major city</a> in eastern Congo. The Congolese government has also expelled the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/3/congo-expels-u-n-peacekeeping-mission-spokesman-after-protests">UN mission’s spokesperson</a>.</p>
<p>Given Canada’s investments in peacekeeping operations in the DRC, Canadians should demand accountability for alleged human rights violations by UN officials.</p>
<p>Canadian multilateral diplomacy also has a vested interest in ensuring the credibility of UN peacekeeping to maintain and promote peace. The DRC is central to regional stability as the second-largest country in Africa bordering nine neighbours.</p>
<h2>3. Canadian-Congolese connections</h2>
<p>Ongoing violence in the DRC has caused <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/07/1122162">people to flee Congo</a> to <a href="https://reporting.unhcr.org/drcsituation">neighbouring countries</a> and to Canada. The DRC consistently ranks among the <a href="https://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/statistics/protection/pages/index.aspx">top countries in terms of alleged persecution</a> in refugee claims in Canada. </p>
<p>Congolese refugees are resettled to Canada through private sponsorship or government assistance streams, and Canada is a destination for <a href="https://workstudyvisa.com/study-canada-congo-drc/">Congolese international students</a>. At a time of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/2021-canada-language-census-data-1.6553477">declining French-language speakers</a> in Canada, Congolese-Canadians make up an important percentage of francophones.</p>
<p>These human connections can be leveraged by the Canadian government for expertise on the situation in the DRC, and Canada’s response.</p>
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<h2>How should Canadians respond?</h2>
<p>Canada is connected to the DRC through the global economy, international peacekeeping efforts and migration. We must not ignore violence because it’s far away.</p>
<p>As consumers, we need to hold companies accountable for ethical sourcing of materials in our cellular telephones and electric vehicles.</p>
<p>We need accurate and timely information on events unfolding in the DRC. If Canadian media do not have resources for dedicated reporting, they should amplify stories from credible local, regional and international news organizations.</p>
<p>As constituents, we need to call on our MPs and the ministers of Foreign Affairs, Defence and International Cooperation for accountability for Canadian and UN peacekeeping in the DRC. </p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canadian-peacekeepers-safe-sheltering-as-deadly-anti-un-protests-rock-the-drc-1.6003138">Canadian officials have said</a> no Canadian personnel were injured in the recent anti-UN violence, they have not publicly commented on the underlying reasons for the protests. </p>
<p>The Canadian government should convene a group of experts, including Congolese-Canadians, to review Canada’s role in the DRC and propose a strategy for current and future peace support operations in the country. </p>
<p>As a long-standing contributor to peacekeeping in the DRC, Canada has a responsibility to ensure that our interventions respect human rights and contribute to lasting peace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina Clark-Kazak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada is connected to the Democratic Republic of Congo through the global economy, international peacekeeping efforts and migration. We must not ignore violence because it’s far away.Christina Clark-Kazak, Associate Professor, Public and International Affairs, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1884352022-08-11T04:00:12Z2022-08-11T04:00:12ZAnother school has banned mobile phones but research shows bans don’t stop bullying or improve student grades<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478483/original/file-20220810-16-tzkp3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C20%2C4425%2C3071&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-students-using-mobile-phone-on-654268147">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, one Sydney high school <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-sydney-high-school-banned-mobile-phones-it-had-dramatic-results-20220803-p5b6zf.html">made headlines</a> for banning mobile phones during school hours. Phones can come to school but must stay in locked pouches allowing teachers to “focus on educating students”.</p>
<p>This follows other recent phone bans at both public and <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/sceggs-bans-students-using-mobiles-as-schools-battle-online-dependence-20220429-p5ahad.html">private schools</a> around Australia. In 2020, Victoria <a href="https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/mobile-phones-be-banned-next-year-all-state-schools">banned phones</a> for all state primary and secondary schools and many private schools, while prestigious Sydney girls school SCEGGS Darlinghurst <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/education/sceggs-bans-students-using-mobiles-as-schools-battle-online-dependence-20220429-p5ahad.html">banned phones</a> in May 2022. </p>
<p>This is part of a <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjet.12943">worldwide trend</a>. In a move popular with parents, schools and governments see phone bans as a way to fix <a href="https://www.lismorecitynews.com.au/story/7731645/tiktok-harassment-intimidation-behind-school-phone-ban-decision/">bullying</a> and student disengagement.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775719303966?via%3Dihub">research shows</a> banning doesn’t resolve these problems. Instead, we need to educate students about how to manage these problems.</p>
<h2>Schools in the firing line</h2>
<p>Schools have certainly been thrown into the firing line when it comes to helping young people grapple with technology. Anecdotally, phone bans are <a href="https://www.lismorecitynews.com.au/story/7731645/tiktok-harassment-intimidation-behind-school-phone-ban-decision/">supposed to ensure</a> students behave better and pay more attention in class. </p>
<p>However, genuinely resolving issues like these in the long term is not simple. Removing one variable – a phone – cannot address the complexity needed to resolve them. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/banning-mobile-phones-in-schools-beneficial-or-risky-heres-what-the-evidence-says-119456">Banning mobile phones in schools: beneficial or risky? Here's what the evidence says</a>
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<p>The purpose of school is to support children to develop the skills, knowledge and dispositions needed for the era in which they live. </p>
<p>Given we live in a digital era, the question we should be asking is not, “should we ban phones or not”. It should be how can schools support young people to engage with technology in an empowered and positive way? And where does banning mobile phones fit into this? </p>
<h2>The research says bans don’t work</h2>
<p>From talking to teachers for my work, I know that phones in classrooms can be frustrating. If phones are not silenced or turned over, students can be momentarily distracted if a notification comes up. </p>
<p>But rigorous peer-reviewed research shows banning mobile phones in class have no impact on students’ academic performance. It does not harm or improve academic results in the long-term. A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775719303966?via%3Dihub">2020 Swedish study</a> examined high school students grade points (or marks) before and after a year-long mobile phone ban and found no impact. </p>
<p>Despite concerns, research shows mobile phones have <a href="https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?dswid=8058&faces-redirect=true&language=sv&searchType=SIMPLE&query=&af=%5B%5D&aq=%5B%5B%5D%5D&aq2=%5B%5B%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D&pid=diva2%3A866544&noOfRows=50&sortOrder=author_sort_asc&sortOrder2=title_sort_asc&onlyFullText=false&sf=all">generally been found</a> not to disrupt teachers instructing students. This is because students mostly pick them up between tasks or at the end of lessons.</p>
<p>Research also <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/92a11084-en">tells us</a> traditional (in-person) bullying continues to be more prevalent than cyberbullying around the world. So, removing one device for six hours a day will not stop bullying. </p>
<p>When thinking about phones in schools, there are three bigger issues we need to think about, beyond simply banning them at the school gate.</p>
<h2>1. Living in a distracting world</h2>
<p>A 2018 <a href="https://research.udemy.com/research_report/udemy-depth-2018-workplace-distraction-report/">Udemy survey</a> found 36% of millennials and Gen Z employees spend more than two hours checking their smartphones for personal activities during the workday. In real terms, the 40 hour week has turned into a 30 hour work week, plus ten hours on your phone. </p>
<p>So, we know students need to learn how to work and be productive when they are in a technology-immersed world.</p>
<p>This is not to say classrooms should become a free-for-all TikTok fest whenever students feel the urge to go online. But we need to support children to learn how to concentrate and function in a digitally-saturated world.</p>
<h2>2. New risks and changes to old ones</h2>
<p>The digital era has introduced some risks and changed the nature of others and we need to specifically educate students about these. </p>
<p>Privacy risks have also morphed and follow us almost everywhere we go. Recent <a href="https://internetsafetylabs.org/resources/reports/spotlight-report-1-school-mobile-apps-student-data-sharing-behavior/">research</a> by Internet Study Lab suggests 95% of educational apps used in schools collect personal data about students that is then on sold to third parties. </p>
<p>Students also need to be able to identify misinformation, manage <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-in-fact-a-wrong-way-to-use-google-here-are-5-tips-to-set-you-on-the-right-path-179099">algorithmic bias</a>, understand commercial profiling and watch out for social isolation. And bullying of course now <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/content/paper/f60b492b-en">occurs online</a> and follows children beyond the school gate. </p>
<p>Locking phones in pouches may be a short-term solution, but young people will still face these complex, technology-related issues, perhaps as soon as on the way home from school. </p>
<h2>3. Treating children with respect</h2>
<p>Over COVID lockdowns there was enormous reliance on children to use their devices to learn, socialise and stay mentally well. Now we are (mostly) back to normal and suddenly, young people are no longer to be trusted with a screen in the context of their schooling. </p>
<p>Not only is this confusing for young people, it sets up a dynamic where something they need to use everyday is seen now seen as “wrong” or “harmful”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-need-to-learn-about-cybersecurity-but-teachers-only-have-so-much-time-in-the-day-112136">Kids need to learn about cybersecurity, but teachers only have so much time in the day</a>
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<p>We need to build trust with young people and empower them with skills and positive habits to use technology well in ways that will enhance their life.</p>
<p>Obviously this adds more pressure and work to already stretched schools, but if phones are going to be banned, they can’t just be ignored in the classroom. There needs to be specific lessons or instruction on the issues around them. </p>
<p>This is no longer a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/screen-time-for-kids-is-an-outdated-concept-so-lets-ditch-it-and-focus-on-quality-instead-186462">screentime</a>” conversation. We need new knowledge and new education strategies if children are to thrive online post-COVID and beyond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Orlando currently receives funding from Queensland Department of Education.</span></em></p>Classrooms should not be a free-for-all TikTok fest. But we need to support children to learn how to concentrate and function in a digitally-saturated world.Joanne Orlando, Researcher: Digital Literacy and Digital Wellbeing, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1831632022-06-21T13:46:50Z2022-06-21T13:46:50ZFor schools, accepting student mobile phone use may be a better approach than banning them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469834/original/file-20220620-13761-txubdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C7%2C4947%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-african-student-wearing-green-bagpack-1233990439">Rido/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most children in the UK <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/234609/childrens-media-use-and-attitudes-report-2022.pdf">own their own phone by the age of 11</a>. In China children get their first phone at an even younger age, with 88% of first to third-grade pupils (aged six to nine) <a href="https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202104/13/WS6074ec6ea31024ad0bab50c1.html">reported</a> to have their own smartphone.</p>
<p>If children have their own phone, they may well take it to school with them – perhaps encouraged to do so by their parents for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1099-0860.2008.00166.x">safety reasons</a>. For schools, though, mobile phones can be seen as a source of distraction. In <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexledsom/2019/08/30/the-mobile-phone-ban-in-french-schools-one-year-on-would-it-work-elsewhere/">France</a>, mobile phone use is banned during school hours. However, research with teachers in China <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.05.011">has found that</a> banning phones at school is difficult to enforce.</p>
<p>Another approach could be the adoption of school policies – rules or guidelines – that accept the inevitability of phones in schools. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chso.12583">Our recent research</a> suggests that pupils, even in primary schools, may have the maturity to contribute to the development of appropriate policies. </p>
<p>Some research <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/AEA-05-2021-0112/full/html">has found</a> that banning mobile phone use can enhance students’ academic performance, especially for pupils from <a href="https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/dp1350.pdf?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Education%20-%204%20February%202022&utm_term=Education">disadvantaged backgrounds</a>. But this has not been consistently found in other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102009">research studies</a>. </p>
<p>One reason for the inconsistency in research findings is that studies have focused on different age groups and little consideration has been given to children’s maturity and academic motivation. This is important, as older children might be able to use their phones more appropriately. </p>
<p>For example, 18-year olds have <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00313831.2020.173913">been observed</a> to only use their phones during the “in-between” spaces in the classroom, such as at the beginning and end of a class or when waiting for instruction. Furthermore, this phone use tended to be a solitary activity and therefore did not distract from learning. But it seems unlikely that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10438599.2018.1559786?journalCode=gein20">younger teenagers or children</a> would behave in the same way.</p>
<h2>Benefits of mobile devices</h2>
<p>On the other hand, rather than considering mobile phones <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/hbe2.229">a distraction</a>, they could be used to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0161956X.2019.1702426">increase pupils’ engagement</a> in learning. A <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1099110.pdf">Bring your Own Device initiative</a> trialled in New Zealand secondary schools, in which pupils were encouraged to bring their smartphones and tablets to use in class, found that their digital skills were improved and that there were increased opportunities for collaboration between pupils and between pupils and teachers.</p>
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<img alt="Group of teens in uniform looking at phones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470004/original/file-20220621-19-5kubwk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Mobile phones can contribute to learning at school.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-students-sitting-stairs-using-digital-654900571">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Instead of banning phones outright, schools could consider introducing mobile phone use policies which develop children’s <a href="https://www.childnet.com/resources/digital-resilience/">digital skills and resilience</a> by teaching them about the benefits as well as the risks of mobile phone use. In addition to reducing possible distractions to learning, these polices could be used to encourage appropriate mobile phone use. This might be particularly important for younger children who may be less able to regulate their use of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2018.1559786">phones appropriately</a>.</p>
<h2>Consulting with children</h2>
<p>Taking the views of those most directly involved with the policy – teachers, pupils and parents – into consideration <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131516302305">is important</a>. Teachers must enforce the policy, children are the intended beneficiaries of the policy and the views of parents are likely to influence their child’s compliance with the policy.</p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chso.12583">In our research</a> at Staffordshire University we carried out paired interviews with parents and their ten or 11 year-old children. First, they were asked for their views on the benefits and risks of mobile phone use at school. Secondly, a range of different school mobile phone polices were shared with them and they gave their views on these. </p>
<p>The findings suggest the children and their parents shared the view that phones were important for keeping in contact. They were also aware of the downsides of having phones at school, including bullying and risks of being able to access the internet. Neither parents nor children were supportive of policies involving total bans. </p>
<p>We found that the children contributed to the discussions in a very mature way, sometimes surprising their parents in how aware of the risks they were. Furthermore, in collaboration with their parents, they were able to come up with ideas for ideal policies and solutions to help enforce them. They demonstrated good awareness of appropriate and inappropriate use of mobile phones at school. One parent-child pair suggested a role of “telephone prefect” who would have a class mobile phone that children and parents could use to contact each other during the school day when necessary. </p>
<p>Involving children and parents in policy development has the potential to increase the effectiveness and enforceability of policies – and may even reduce children’s problematic phone use <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15213269.2018.1433544">more broadly</a>. Consulting with parents and pupils when developing school mobile phone policies is already recommended in <a href="https://www.webwise.ie/teachers/considerations-for-smartphone-use-in-schools/">Ireland</a>.</p>
<p>School policies that ban mobile phones in schools may be missing an opportunity to involve children and educate them about responsible mobile phone use.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Rose is affiliated with Staffordshire University and a member of the British Psychological Society</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Taylor is affiliated with Staffordshire University and is a member of the British Psychological Society. </span></em></p>One option is for schools to develop mobile phone policies together with children and parents.Sarah Rose, Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Child Development, Staffordshire UniversityJennifer Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Qualitative Psychological Research Methods, Staffordshire UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.