Khaberni - A 17-year-old girl has filed a lawsuit against the British government after her schoolmates showed her shocking video clips on their smartphones during the school day.
The clips included scenes of violence, shootings and beheadings, as well as threatening messages. The lawsuit aims to ban the use of smartphones in high schools in England, according to the "The Guardian".
The student, Flucy McKeshia, recounted her experience in high school since seventh grade: "Videos were constantly shown to us by our classmates, despite the school's policy that emphasizes the confiscation of any phone used to watch or listen to content during school hours, but this policy was not practically enforced."
She added: "What affected me the most was a video of two children playing with a gun, where one accidentally shot the other and the child died.. I was so shocked that I returned home early and couldn't sleep for several days."
Kate Moore, a mother of three from Northampton, joined the lawsuit after her 18-year-old daughter told her that she was exposed to shocking pornographic content in the school changing rooms and through WhatsApp groups, as well as seeing sexual content on the platform "Omegle" while she was in ninth grade.
Moore said: "I try to protect my children at home, but they can go to school and be exposed to harmful content through other students' phones. Until smartphones are banned, there is no guarantee for children's safety during the school day."
Also participating in the lawsuit is child protection specialist and former social work expert, Dr. Kieran Murphy, as a witness, while lawyers affirm that the current smartphone policies, adopted by 79% of high schools, do not provide adequate protection for children, pointing to a series of serious incidents that occur daily inside schools and on the way to and from them.
James Gardner, the plaintiffs' attorney, said: "The government is aware of the severe harm caused by smartphones to children in schools. There was a golden opportunity to rectify the situation through a national ban when issuing protection guidelines this fall, but it ignored the problem again.. putting our children at risk."
