WITH the impact of the internet being one of the most serious issues facing parents nowadays, Clonmoney National School have joined the Agree to Agree programme, which provides a framework for internet usage for children.
Agree to Agree sees feedback gathered from parents, children and teachers, before a bespoke agreement for a school is reached.
Clonmoney National School principal David McCormack said that it had been apparent that there were issues around social media usage, leading to the school going with Agree to Agree.
“It was in response to a growing trend where many pupils felt isolated or excluded in their class settings if they weren’t using certain social media apps such as SnapChat and TikTok,” he said.
“We have had children in our senior classes who have been on group chats on these platforms and this caused a lot of upset due to the nature of the interactions, some of them could be quite toxic. We were also aware of the impact on children who weren’t part of social media groups. It had quite a devastating impact on the wellbeing of schoolchildren and this affected their daily lives in school also.
“We were notified by Clare Education Centre about the Agree to Agree programme and it chimed very much with the Department guidelines about smartphone usage. Also the idea is to give a voice to parents and pupils, giving them an input into whatever agreement was formed and that was very appealing to us as a school.”
The first step was to find out how children were accessing the internet and what the associated issues were.
“A key aspect was the consultation with parents, children and staff. We met a focus group from the parents association and also the parents of our Student Council on the usage of the internet by children at home,” he said.
“We also carried out a question and answer discussion forum with our senior classes, third, fourth, fifth and sixth. The children described their worries about inappropriate content, being addicted to certain online games, also wanting to be on social media apps such as TikTok and Snapchat. Staff also filled out questionnaires.”
After that was done it was agreed what new policies would be put in place for the schoolchildren.
“Once we had it all together, we recorded the data and focused on two points for our voluntary internet use agreement for the school, which was shared with the parents when the children returned to school,” he said.
“One of them was around the age of the first device, that pupils attending Clonmoney NS would not have the sole ownership of a smartphone while attending our school. And then that there would be certain limits placed on the usage of shared devices in the home. That was condition one.
“The second condition was related to social media. We asked parents to ensure that their children were not on social media accounts and that they would not engage in any group chats, which are exclusionary in nature if certain children in a class aren’t part of the group. Those were the two that we focused in on and over 90% of our parents have already signed up. We have a few stragglers that still have to return the forms. We stamp the agreement sheet and return it to the family so they have a copy in their homes, that they have agreed that this is what they’re going to follow for their child’s time in Clonmoney school.”
He praised Dr Maureen Griffin for her work in facilitating their participation in Agree to Agree, while he said it is already making a difference.
“We’ve had a meeting of the Parents’ Association this month and the feedback has been so positive. They feel relieved by it,” he said.
In the 23/24 school year it was clear that social media use was problematic, and there is evidence that the problems has decreased significantly now.
“There were one or two cases last year when there was quite a lot of upset because of Snapchat, that specific app, the content on it, the toxic language being used, and certain children not being allowed onto the group that was created by a certain cohort of the children.
“The fear of being left out, that you’re not worthy to be in this particular group.
“The most prevalent issue for us is group chats and it doesn’t seem to be an issue now, I’m happy to say.”
He says that use of the internet can help children’s education, but there is no doubt that strong safeguards need to be in place.
Use of certain social media apps by children inevitably leads to difficulties, he feels.
“There’s no doubt about it, it doesn’t make them any happier anyway. They might say it’s handy to contact friends to meet up, but there is so much upset it causes and there are other ways to arrange to meet up and keep in touch.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.