Many children and young people can no longer imagine their everyday lives without their cell phones. However, their use at school brings problems with it: distraction or disruption in lessons, bullying against pupils or teachers, viewing and sharing criminal content are just a few examples. Nevertheless, many schools and experts consider a strict ban on cell phones to be of little use, as it shifts misuse to leisure time - the problem is not solved.
Learn responsible use
It makes more sense to teach responsible and safe use of smartphones and their possibilities and to educate children about possible dangers. This is where the cell phone policy comes in. More than ten years ago, representatives from three secondary schools in Rheine, the youth welfare office and the Rheine adult education center came together to develop these rules. The district police authority and its crime prevention team provided expert advice. Singer and entertainer Mickie Krause was won as patron for the project.
Simply download
After numerous meetings in which suggestions and changes were discussed, the cell phone policy for schools was finalized. It can be downloaded from this page at Download and used for your own purposes.
Problems with cell phone use exist in schools of all types. For this reason, interested schools have repeatedly contacted us in recent years wanting to integrate the cell phone policy into their everyday school life.
According to Section 131 para. 1 no. 3 StGB, anyone who intentionally publishes writings (which also include digital images or videos, Section 11 para. 3 StGB) that depict cruel or otherwise inhumane acts of violence against humans or human-like beings in a way that glorifies or trivializes such acts of violence or that depicts the cruelty or inhumanity of the act in a way that violates human dignity, offers, provides or makes accessible to a person under the age of eighteen. Sending images of the content described in this way to another minor, e.g. via Bluetooth, is therefore a criminal offense.
Distributing such images or making them publicly accessible in accordance with no. 2 is also punishable under Section 131 (1) no. 1 StGB. Similarly, Section 184 StGB criminalizes the sending of pornographic images. These may not be made available to a person under the age of eighteen. Likewise, they may not be exhibited, shown or otherwise made available in a place that is accessible to persons under the age of eighteen (e.g. school playground).
Bullying and new forms of violence
Copyright infringements
Young people in particular often violate copyright regulations. Pirated copies are created. Pictures of young people and schoolchildren are often forwarded to cell phones and published on the Internet without their consent. This clearly violates the "right to one's own image" - a special form of the general right of personality.
New forms of violence
Digitalization and the rapid spread of images and videos have led to the development of new forms of violence. Scenes of violence are staged so that they can be filmed and then distributed (keyword "happy slapping"). Films and images with pornographic content as well as real and fake humiliation, rape, bestiality scenes and brutal murders and executions are also sent via cell phone. In youth language, these images and videos are usually referred to as "snuff videos" (from "to snuff someone out").
The young people who share these videos are also keen to "land" the most brutal video and receive praise and recognition from their peers. The resulting peer pressure means that new material is constantly being downloaded from the internet and distributed. The content can not only lead to a higher propensity for violence, but also to psychological impairments. Eating and sleeping disorders can be the result of regular consumption of these films.
Bullying
Young people may also humiliate and degrade other people and record these scenes on their smartphones. The dissemination of these degrading images is often used as a means of exclusion - or, if it is used permanently against certain people, as bullying.
The video below from the Federal and State Crime Prevention Service is about the sharing of child pornography.