What is safeguarding?
The UK Government’s definition:
“The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully”.
Wikipedia definition:
“Safeguarding Children is a multi-stranded identifying concept that reaches beyond basic child protection to incorporate the additional aims of preventing the impairment of children’s health and development, ensuring children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care, as well as protecting children from maltreatment……” Read More
What does ICNIRP say?
The UK government relies on such agencies as ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection) for advice. Under the Commission’s section entitled “People being protected” ICNIRP pays recognition to the fact that some groups in the population may be more vulnerable, or more affected, than others: We quote.
People being protected
Different groups in a population may have differences in their ability to tolerate a particular NIR exposure. For example, children, the elderly, and some chronically ill people might have a lower tolerance for one or more forms of NIR exposure than the rest of the population. Under such circumstances, it may be useful or necessary to develop separate guideline levels for different groups within the general population, but it may be more effective to adjust the guidelines for the general population to include such groups.
Some guidelines may still not provide adequate protection for certain sensitive individuals nor for normal individuals exposed concomitantly to other agents, which may exacerbate the effect of the NIR exposure, an example being individuals with photosensitivity. Where such situations have been identified, appropriate specific advice should be developed-within the context of scientific knowledge.
In some circumstances, it may be advisable to distinguish between members of the general public and individuals exposed because of or while performing their work tasks (occupational exposure). In its exposure guidelines, ICNIRP distinguishes occupational and public exposures in general terms. When applying the guidelines to specific situations, it is ICNIRP’s opinion that the relevant authorities in each country should decide on whether occupational or general public guideline levels are to be applied, according to existing (national) rules or policies. Environmental conditions may also influence the effect of whole-body exposure to optical or RF radiation.
More on ICNIRP:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q89Gv2P3RH8&feature=youtu.be
Other safeguarding issues:
You will see from the leaflet below that the UK Chief Medical Officers recommended that children under the age of 16 should use mobile phones for essential calls only:
Mobile Phones in Schools:
Please note at that The Conservative Party Conference 2023, Gillian Keegan, as Secretary of State for Education, announced a ban on the use of mobile phones in the classroom. For some time this has been a safeguarding issue.
Many schools still seem unaware of the advice given in the above government leaflet (in the above link) but nevertheless now welcome the possibility of having the remit to enforce a ban as and where they see fit, to restore order in the classroom so that effective teaching can indeed occur. Gillian Keegan stated:
“Today, one of the biggest issues facing children and teacher is grappling with is the impact of smartphones in our schools.
The distraction, the disruption, the bullying.
We know that teachers are struggling with their impact and need support.
So today we’re recognising the amazing work that many schools have already done in banning mobile phones, and we’re announcing that we will change guidance so that all schools follow their lead.
Because the focus should be on children learning. In. The. Classroom.”
As we write this (in July 2024) we take note of the groundswell of concern that has finally culminated in a proliferation of parental groups now determined to take back childhood for their children and to do all they can to undo (or stop) the harm that delayed action seems to have resulted in. We draw your attention to :
https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk/
We also draw your attention to three excellent books:
Glow Kids by Nicholas Kardaras, Ph.D
Reset Your Child’s Brain, by Victoria L. Dunckley, MD
The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt.
Parents who wish to explore the wider pedagogical issues may be interested in referring to our page devoted to this..
https://ssita.org.uk/the-issues/cognition-curriculum-pedagogy-technology/
and in particular to these links:
http://www.wifiinschools.org.uk/31.html
https://ssita.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Supper_TeuchertNoodt_2021-2-1.pdf
https://ehtrust.org/russia-and-sweden-banning-cell-phones-in-school/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gvpy3yz1yo
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/11/technology/school-phone-bans-indiana-louisiana.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgdx7ddz55o
There is also some useful advice on the NHS website… notbaly, in this discussion, the last of the Don’ts:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tiredness-and-fatigue/
* A thought-provoking article:
What Will You Tell The Children?
By Roger H Moller BSc.Ind.Eng. – Electric Forester.
When the risks from today’s use of wireless technologies are fully accepted, what will you tell the children?
Of all the possible justifications – “They said it was safe, nobody knew, everyone was using mobiles, smart-phones and Wi-Fi…” and on and on. Perhaps the one thing that embraces all these vain excuse is:“We didn’t think…”
We didn’t think holding a microwave transmitter next to our brains or theirs would be hazardous; we didn’t think the effects would be cumulative or carry over to future generations; we didn’t think each device on its own would be dangerous; we didn’t think the powers-that-be would allow it and we didn’t think it would affect us or anyone close to us. We trusted and we believed it was all safe, however much we were exposed. We thought we could all talk and text, speak and e-mail forever, surf the Internet and stream audio and video wirelessly to our heart’s content and nothing bad would happen, ever. In short, we thought whatever the potential risks,
‘We would get away with it.’
We never knew that smart-meters were wireless or that our home, school and office alarm systems were constantly filling our space with microwave radiation. We did not understand that cordless phones use always-on pulsed digital wireless, and the Wi-Fi router, and the laptop, and the tablet, and the baby monitor, and the security cameras, and the Bluetooth in the car and, the microwave oven, and….
We let our children bully us into giving them their first mobile phone. We thought we’d lose them if we didn’t comply with the emerging trend. We found it hard to believe that wearing the wrong brands or a lack of wireless connectivity would cause our children to be rejected by their peers. We let them have a wireless games console and we thought a wireless keyboard and mouse couldn’t possibly hurt them, us or our pets. As for our neighbours, we never really liked them anyway.
So now our children blame us. They blame us as old fuddy-duddies who failed to equip them to live and function in the modern world. They blame us for denying them always-on wireless connectivity soon enough. They blame us for not providing them with instant access to e-mail, Wikipedia, snap-chat, twitter, Facebook and the latest tech, and ultimately they may well blame us for not protecting them from the addiction that is even today taking them from us. In any event, we the grown-ups should have known better and are by default guilty. No wonder today’s teenagers especially seem to harbour so much resentment for the state of the world they find themselves in.
Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? I don’t think so. The next generation will have to live with their naiveté and the consequences of our actions and inaction. It probably wasn’t your fault that the world you lived in and knew turned against you and stole your children – but you may still carry the guilt. It is the way The-Powers-That-Be have engineered the future. [End]
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cnx753je2npt
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgdx7ddz55o
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wrqg4vd2qo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiped:_The_School_That_Banned_Smartphones
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/swiped-the-school-that-banned-smartphones-channel-4-review1/