Professors Ángela Sánchez-Pérez, from Toledo, and Natalia Jiménez León, from Barcelona, have registered almost 63,000 signatures in the Congress of Deputies to request that the use of mobile phones by children under 14 or 16 be prohibited due to the detrimental effects observed by teachers on the attention and pedagogical development of students.
The demand and the collection of signatures have been promoted by the Toledo teacher Ángela Sánchez-Pérez, who was joined by another teacher from Barcelona, Natalia Jiménez, who also promoted an account on change.org. Both asked for support to approve legislation that prohibits smartphones for minors "at all levels" between 14 and 16 years old.
The collection of signatures is the previous step to the negotiation with parliamentary groups so that they take the petition into consideration in their legislative proposals.
"We hope you listen to us because we have raised awareness and we are at a time when we have to stop this with legislation. I am not a lawyer, I am a teacher. And we have observed very serious things in students in recent years that need to be known. and limit", explained Sánchez-Pérez. The Toledo teacher in charge of bringing the signatures to Congress believes that it is very good to educate and train, but she also urges legislation "and that the use of mobile phones be regulated" because minors are "unprotected," she explained in statements to La Vanguardia. . This specialist in Physical Education in primary school, she assures that the sedentary lifestyle, for which she blames mobile phones in part, is noticeable in her classes. "Children no longer even know how to run backwards," she laments.
He assures that the social debate is incontestable because they have achieved 63,000 signatures "in 20 days" and believes that the concern of society must be heard
The collection of signatures, supported by various professionals in the educational field, responds, according to its promoters, to certain behaviors observed in young people, such as cyberbullying, depression, insomnia or attention deficit in educational centers.
Regarding the comment of the Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, who last week said that a ban on cell phones "would be like putting doors to the countryside," she pointed out that "doors to the countryside cannot be put up, but if the countryside has cliffs there are have to think about it." In addition to cyberbullying, he has alluded to attention deficit. "If you don't show them a video, they won't pay attention. I'm a teacher, but now it's up to the jurists to step up."
According to Sánchez-Pérez's initiative, which was born on change.org, it focuses on the "uncontrolled use of social networks and internet content inappropriate for children" and calls for a law that regulates their use up to the age of 14, contemplating not only the scope teacher but also the daily life.
This movement is parallel to the parent groups organized on Telegram that pursue the same objective and to the questioning of the use of mobile phones in schools and institutes. Some autonomous communities have already regulated the use of devices. Just yesterday, the president of the community of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, announced in the Debate of the State of the Community, that he will limit the use of mobile devices in the classrooms of educational centers, although he did not specify whether the ban will be total and if it will change with respect to the current situation.)
