Kids waste time on Facebook during class

happygeek 0 557 Views

File under: shock, horror or perhaps irony.

According to a press release from Global Secure Systems that I received today, it has "uncovered the alarming reality that UK school children are studying social networking websites during their lessons instead of what they should be concentrating on." In fact, the release goes on to reveal that a "staggering" 52 percent of the 1000 children surveyed confessed to visiting Facebook and similar sites during lesson time.

OK, first things first, the results are slightly twisted in favour of a high response as the survey itself was conducted through Facebook so the people taking part were already likely to be committed users. Secondly, given this single demographic it is highly unsurprising that so many kids should admit to visiting social networking sites on their laptops during class.

Doesn't make it right, of course, just not a great shock.

"I am disturbed, but not surprised, by the findings of this survey. There are two main issues; one is the safety of youngsters on the web and the second is the time that is frittered away. The time youngsters spend on the internet, and more specifically on social networking sites, is a huge challenge for parents and those of us in education. Says Toby Mullins, Head of Seaford College. "Youngsters are not only using lesson time but often quietly continue late into the night, leaving them short of sleep and irritable the next day. I think a study like this to highlight the problem is very timely. We now need to plan for a solution."

David Hobson, GSS managing director, added: "Kids are potentially wasting as much as two and a half hours a week of lessons on Facebook. I recognise that there is a place for social networking, with a whole new generation now relying on it to communicate, but not at the expense of an education. Schools could learn a lesson from industry and ensure school children productively use the Internet. Through the deployment of software, access to inappropriate websites can either be completely blocked, or limited to break time, economically and efficiently."

Dani AI

Generated

This thread exposes the familiar tension between simple blocking and teaching good digital habits. As pointed out, headline surveys can mislead; ’s lab experience shows blunt bans often lag behind new services; reminds us a little use can be harmless; and demonstrates students will use the web productively when given direction. That mix argues for a layered response rather than a single “block everything” reaction.

Recommended approach (policy + pedagogy + tech):

  • Create a clear Acceptable Use Policy that says when personal social access is allowed, what counts as misuse, and what sanctions apply.
  • Teach digital citizenship and time management in class so students understand online reputation and productivity, not just the bans.
  • Offer attractive alternatives and structured in-class uses (research tasks, moderated groups) so the impulse to socialize is channeled constructively.
  • Use targeted technical controls: network segmentation, time-based filtering, bandwidth shaping and classroom-management tools rather than blanket blacklists.
  • Engage parents and staff with the same expectations — consistency outside lessons reduces temptation during lessons.

Implementation tips and cautions:

  • Start with an audit: measure actual traffic and teacher reports before changing policy. Data beats anecdotes.
  • Pilot controls in one area, review logs, then expand; keep teachers able to whitelist resources for legitimate work.
  • Be mindful of privacy and local law when monitoring student devices; get legal/administrative sign-off and parental notice where required.
  • Avoid treating social tools as purely a problem — supervised, goal‑directed use can support collaboration and digital skills that employers later expect, as hints.

Balancing engagement and control gives better long‑term results than pure restriction: reduce friction for learning, make rules obvious, and use measured technical steps to protect class time.

Member Avatar for peter_budo
peter_budo 2,532 Code tags enforcer

Unfortunately nothing new for me. I used to get angry with all students at my uni for sitting in labs and taking pcs to check their facebook or other networks including site as youtube, while other wanted to use the pc for school work. This activities are now banned in the library but you still see many students sitting in the labs, checking the sites and being very loud. This is one of the reasons why I got my laptop with me on most days at school.
Funny enough uni disabled acsses to yahoo, hotmail and blocked msn when I started, but even after 4 years they did not catch up with facebook and others...

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Dani 5,664 The Queen of DaniWeb

Two and a half hours a week really isn't excessive, IMO. However, I agree there is a time and place for it.

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BluePaper 0 Light Poster

I don't find this surprising at all, as a student myself I see first hand people on these sites. I personally don't visit any of the social networking sites in school time, and rarely in my own time. Me and a few others if we get on the internet at all spend our time on wikipedia researching our interests, but only during our free lessons. I do find it a bit disturbing that students can get addicted to such sites, but fair enough to sites like MySpace and Facebook for creating sites that capture their targeted audience, with all the adverts I bet they make a lot of money (stating the obvious).

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happygeek 2,411 Most Valuable Poster

the 2.5 hours a week figure relates to during lesson time only rather than in total which i would say was pretty excessive!

Member Avatar for UrbanKhoja
UrbanKhoja 89 Practically a Posting Shark

Doesn't surprise me at all; how many of the people that complied that original report spend their days on MySpace & Facebook do you reckon? If no one was going on it then employers wouldn't causing was it is effectively a rugby scrum to ban them all! lol

Dazza :cool:

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