Parents and pupils work together on phone safety

PARENTS and children at a Plymouth primary school have been encouraged to work together to create a plan to allow youngsters to use mobile phones safely.

Staff from the NSPCC’s Together for Childhood Plymouth visited St Peter’s C of E Primary School to talk to parents and children about how to stay safe when using their phones.

It was part of Phoneability, a pilot scheme created and run by Together for Childhood Plymouth. The scheme has so far been delivered to five schools in the city, reaching 261 children and 33 parents.

At St Peter’s, a session with Year 4 and 5 children, aged between eight and 10, found that around half already have their own mobile phones with access to the internet. Some of the children said they had been using apps such as TikTok and Snapchat which have age ratings of 13 and above, and had received unwanted messages from strangers.

Together for Childhood staff explained to the youngsters how they could remain safe when using their phones and encouraged them to speak to a trusted adult if they had any worries, or saw something that made them uncomfortable.