Hansard

I remind Pam Gosal that the foreword from me at the front of the national guidance document makes it very clear that any headteacher will have my backing as cabinet secretary should they see fit to implement a ban but that, ultimately, the decision as to whether to do so is at their disposal. That is because we trust headteachers, who know our schools, to take such decisions.

There is a wider, political, point to be made on this issue. I do not want to prejudge what might come from any political manifestos in this space, but I hope that Pam Gosal can hear that I am seriously considering wider action in this space.

I want to pay tribute to Audrey Nicoll, to her final contribution in the Scottish Parliament and to her service as the constituency member for Aberdeen South and North Kincardine. Audrey Nicoll has played a key role in convening the Criminal Justice Committee throughout this parliamentary session, and her contributions in the chamber, as Willie Rennie alluded to, have always been thoughtful, intelligent and well reasoned. People listen when Audrey Nicoll speaks, and she will be much missed on the Scottish National Party benches and in the Scottish Parliament when she leaves us.

Miles Briggs spoke about the impact of mobile phone devices on childhood development and children changing but the pace of technology not necessarily keeping pace with what is happening in our schools. It is important to put on the record that the Government has today published the first online safety action plan, which is part of our response to those emerging issues. The action plan is the outcome of a task force that was led by Natalie Don-Innes and Siobhian Brown. I thank both ministers for their vital work in bringing together partners and stakeholders to ensure that the Government has delivered action on the matter before the Parliament rises.

Paul O’Kane was quite right to say that a ban in isolation is not the answer. If colleagues speak to headteachers about how they have gone about implementing bans, they will find that doing so takes time. The headteacher at Portobello high school, for example, took nine months to implement a ban. Doing so involved engagement with parents and pupils. Getting buy-in and support for the approach took time—it could not happen overnight.

I might be the only MSP in the chamber who has ever confiscated a mobile phone from a 15-year-old boy. Such situations can be fractious. It is important that we remember that headteachers and teachers are dealing with young people and that behaviour is sometimes a challenge in our schools, as we heard from Mr Kerr. It is important that we support teachers in responding to those matters accordingly. In itself, a national ban will not provide the resolution that Pam Gosal wants. We need to think about wider behavioural change, too.

Willie Rennie made some interesting points about digital technology and potentially limiting the time for certain subjects. I agree with his comments about the narrowness of the debate thus far. The question that is worth asking is whether a national ban, were we to introduce legislative change in the next parliamentary session, would be enough for our schools. If the next Government is to legislate on school education, we need to be much more ambitious than simply considering a mobile phone ban.

Sharon Dowey rightly spoke about adult use of technology, as I alluded to. We also need to be mindful of our own behaviour in the chamber.

Brian Whittle spoke more broadly about the need for us to engage with young people. It was helpful for us to hear yesterday from the outgoing chair of the Scottish Youth Parliament, Ellie Craig, who delivered time for reflection. Paul O’Kane talked about girls restricting their actions on certain apps to protect themselves. That made me reflect on the fact that—I do not know whether he has noticed this—a number of female members of the Cabinet have now taken themselves off the platform known as X. We have taken action to protect ourselves in our roles. It is a gendered issue, as anyone who has seen the recent “Manosphere” documentary on Netflix will attest to. We need to be mindful of that in our schools when we talk about mobile phone technology, because girls experience it in different ways, and the majority of our teaching profession is also female.

Mr Kerr spoke more broadly about local discretion, which, in practice, he argued, leads to variation. I agree, but that is a feature of our education system—currently. It need not be under a future Parliament.