The Social Rights Commission of Barcelona City Council approved this morning a proposal that urges the Department of Education and Health to "urgently regulate the use of mobile phones" by minors inside and outside the school environment and throughout compulsory education, that is, up to the age of 16, with the prohibition in schools and institutes. Ask for clear criteria, mandatory, for everyone and as a matter of urgency. Not "recommendations" or the appeal to "center autonomy" (that each center defines its rules of use).
This demand is in line with the recommendations of the Barcelona School Council which last week spoke in the same sense, although it did not mention the prohibition but rather the regulation of use by age groups and taking into account that primary school is not the same. What Vocational Training. The Maresme-Vallès Oriental School Council has also expressed its opinion.
The Department of Education, for its part, will wait to collect the final conclusions of the Catalan School Council (in mid-December) and analyze its content to propose "clear guidelines" in January or February so that the centers include it. in its operating rules this same year or, at the latest, the next year, as indicated by the Secretary of Educational Transformation last Thursday.
The Barcelona en Comú text has had the support of all groups, including ERC and with the exception of the PP, which has abstained.
Barcelona en Comú's proposal is to prohibit the use of mobile phones and other screens in all primary and secondary schools in the city, "taking into account the alarm that misuse of these devices is generating among families, teachers and the students themselves."
The councilor of the commons Gemma Tarafa has stated that an abusive excess in adolescence generates effects on physical health, such as a sedentary lifestyle and deterioration of vision, and also on psychological health, such as hyperactivity, depressive states, anxiety and emotional dysregulations.
"We have to assume that we live in a digital and technological society that has many advances, but we have to be able to address and accompany with pedagogy and regulation, especially the youngest ones," said Tarafa.
Among the approved proposals is the request to the Government to convene this month the network of experts of the Barcelona Health plan on mobile phones, with the participation of families and the educational community.
Likewise, the Government and the European Union are asked to regulate technology companies, telephone companies and large digital platforms, as well as establish public controls over the algorithms that are developed.
According to the Public Health Area of the Barcelona Provincial Council, one in three 4th year ESO students uses their mobile phone more than 3 hours a day and 45% admit to spending more time browsing than with friends, a figure that has doubled since in 2017.
The proposal that has been approved in committee asks the Barcelona Education Consortium (a consortium participated by the municipal and regional administration) to establish clear regulations or guidelines that are mandatory for all centers.
The Republican councilor, for her part, Eva Baró has highlighted that the debate and possible regulation has to do beyond the school environment "because the problem of use, misuse and abuse of mobile phones occurs 24 hours a day." Therefore, she has proposed "a pedagogical, community and transversal approach", Baró continued.
