Dhruv Global School Dubai

Policy on Electronic Addiction, Digital Wellbeing & Responsible Technology

Purpose
To prevent, identify, and address harmful or compulsive use of digital devices and content (“electronic addiction”) while promoting healthy, age-appropriate, and purposeful use of technology for learning and life.
Alignment & Principles
  • KHDA & UAE alignment: Supports KHDA’s emphasis on wellbeing, safeguarding, student protection, and safe digital behaviours; consistent with UAE child rights and cyber safety expectations.

  • International best practice: Draws on WHO/AAP guidance on screen exposure, evidence- informed digital citizenship, and whole-school wellbeing frameworks.

  • Core principles: Safeguarding first; education over punishment; age-appropriateness; inclusion; partnership with families; proportionality and due process; data privacy.
Definitions
  • Electronic addiction / problematic use: Persistent, compulsive device or platform use that interferes with sleep, learning, behaviour, mood, relationships, or health.

  • Digital wellbeing: Balanced, safe, and purposeful engagement with technology that protects physical, mental, social, and cognitive health.

  • Personal device: Any non-school-issued phone, tablet, laptop, smartwatch, gaming device, or e-reader.

  • School device: Any device provisioned by the school (cart iPads, Chromebooks, PCs, interactive panels).
Roles & Responsibilities (summary)

Role Key Duties

Principal/DSL Policy owner; ensures safeguarding, escalation, and staff training.

SAB/Governors Oversight; receive termly wellbeing/safety reports and challenge leaders.

Digital Safety Lead (ICT Head) Filtering, monitoring, incident triage; staff/parent training resources.

Heads of Phase/Year Implementation; tutor time checks; targeted support.

Teachers/TAs Model balanced use; enforce classroom expectations; refer concerns.

Counsellor/Wellbeing Screen, advise, and run interventions; family support.

Parents/Carers Enforce home routines; co-sign agreements; attend workshops.

Students Follow AUP; balance time; report concerns; support peers.

Device & Screen-Time Expectations

5.1 On-Campus Use

  • FS–G2: No personal devices in school. If brought (e.g., travel), handed to Reception until dismissal.

  • G3–G5: No phones visible during school day. Smartwatches in school mode (notifications off).

  • G6–G8: Phones off and away from gate to gate (arrival to dismissal). Use only with explicit staff direction for learning.

  • All phases

  • Learning first: devices are tools, not entertainment.

  • No social media, gaming, or video streaming during the school day unless a teacher authorises it for learning.

  • Photos/recordings only with staff permission and never in toilets, changing areas, prayer rooms, or other sensitive locations.

5.2 Age-Guidance for Daily Leisure Screen Time (home)

  • (Guidance for families; teachers reinforce in PSHE.)

  • Age Recommended daily leisure screen time (non-school) Notes

  • Under 2 Avoid, except video-calls with family Focus on caregiver interaction.

  • 2–5 Up to ~1 hour, high-quality, co-view, when possible, prioritise sleep, outdoor play, talk.

  • 6–10 ~1–2 hours max Establish device-free meals/evenings; no devices 60–90 mins before sleep.

  • 11–13 ~2 hours max Strong parental controls; discuss online behaviour and risks.

  • 14–18 2–3 hours max (context-dependent) Prioritise homework, sleep (8–10 hrs), real-life activities.

Device curfew (home): Recommend all devices out of bedrooms overnight; charging station in common area.

5.3 Platforms & Age Limits

  • Students must follow platform age restrictions (e.g., most social media 13+).

  • Parents are advised to supervise accounts, privacy settings, and friend lists.
Curriculum, Prevention & Education
  • PSHE/Wellbeing & Computing: Explicit teaching on healthy habits, focus & attention, sleep, posture/vision care, cyberbullying, online reputation, misinformation, consent, digital footprints, persuasive design, and managing notifications.

  • Classroom routines: “Tech on purpose” briefings, visible timers, brain breaks, posture checks, “eyes away 20–20–20” habit.

  • Assemblies & Campaigns: Termly themes (e.g., “Balance Your Byte”), Digital Wellbeing Week, parent cafés.

  • Staff modelling: Emails during working hours, no WhatsApp class groups with students, professional boundaries online.
Identification, Reporting & Support

7.1 Early Warning Signs

Sleep problems, irritability on removal, declining grades/engagement, secrecy around devices, social withdrawal, headaches/eye strain, missed activities, repeated rule-breaking.

7.2 Reporting Pathways

  • Students/Staff report concerns to Class Teacher/Head of Year → DSL if risk of harm.

  • Parents contact Class Teacher/HoY or Counsellor.

  • Immediate risk (self-harm, exploitation): DSL follows safeguarding procedures.

7.3 Screening & Triage

  • Counsellor/DSL may use brief, age-appropriate checklists and parent interviews to assess functional impact.

  • Record on student file; agree a Digital Support Plan with targets (e.g., sleep, study plan, reduced late-night use) and review schedule.

7.4 Tiered Interventions

  • Universal: PSHE lessons, whole-class routines, parent guidance.

  • Targeted (Tier 2): Small-group coaching on habits/time-management; app blocking/parental controls; homework scaffolds.

  • Intensive (Tier 3): Individual counselling, multi-agency support where needed; medical referral if comorbidities suspected.
Behaviour, Confiscation & Restorative Measures
  • Confiscation: If a device is used against school rules, staff may confiscate it safely and log the incident.

  • 1st instance: Return at end of day with reminder.

  • 2nd: Parent collects; behaviour conversation.

  • 3rd+: Meeting with HoY/SLT; Digital Support Plan; possible short loss of on-site device privilege.

  • Serious breaches (e.g., bullying, sharing harmful content, recording others without consent): follow Behaviour and Safeguarding policies; sanctions may include internal isolation, suspension in line with KHDA expectations, plus restorative conference and re- education.

  • Restorative approach: Reflection tasks (media diary, sleep log), peer education, community service (e.g., create a wellbeing poster campaign).
Safeguarding, Privacy & Data
  • All online harms (grooming, exploitation, self-harm forums, sexualised content) are treated as safeguarding risks and escalated to the DSL.

  • The school’s filtering and monitoring aim to block harmful categories while respecting privacy and proportionality.

  • Searching a device: only if necessary and proportionate to prevent significant harm, by authorised staff, with a witness, and logged; parents informed unless doing so places the child at risk.
Inclusion & Reasonable Adjustments
  • For Students of Determination or EAL learners, assistive technology may be essential. Reasonable adjustments are documented in IEPs/ILPs, with boundaries to prevent over- reliance and to protect wellbeing.
Homework & Learning Design
  • Teachers design homework with offline balance in mind and give realistic time estimates.

  • Long tasks should include offline options where possible.

  • No requirement for late-night submission times.
Parent Partnership
  • Home–School Digital Wellbeing Agreement signed annually (expectations, curfews, supervision, reporting).

  • Termly workshops: parental controls, age-limits, media balance, cyber-safety.

  • Regular communication: how to spot overuse, how to talk to children about tech.
Staff Conduct & Professional Use
  • Staff use school systems for student communication; no personal social media contact.

  • Classroom tech use must be purposeful, time-bound, and accessible to all learners.

  • Staff minimise non-urgent out-of-hours communication and model balance.
Monitoring, Evaluation & KPIs
  • Data tracked termly: number/nature of incidents, confiscations, referrals, attendance/late patterns linked to late-night use, student/parent survey indices for sleep, stress, balance.

  • Targets: e.g., 25% reduction in repeated device breaches; ≥85% of students report “good balance”; ≥90% of parents confident using controls.

  • Annual report to SAB with actions for improvement.
Implementation Timeline (first year)
  • Term 1: Launch policy; parent agreement; staff training; assemblies; baseline surveys; configure filters/MDM.

  • Term 2: Targeted interventions; parent cafés; mid-year review with KPIs.

  • Term 3: Student-led campaign; evaluation; revisions for next year.

Appendices (templates)

  • Student Acceptable Use (FS–G2 / G3–G5 / G6–G8) – age-specific one-page agreements.

  • Home–School Digital Wellbeing Agreement – device curfews, bedrooms-free, reporting steps.

  • Digital Support Plan – goals, strategies (sleep schedule, timers, app limits), review dates.

  • Incident & Confiscation Log – date, context, action, parent contact, follow-up.

  • Parent Guide (1-pager) – quick tips on controls, conversations, and red flags.

Quick “At-a-Glance” Classroom Poster ( for rooms & corridors )

  • Tech on purpose

  • 2 eyes, 2 feet (posture)

  • 20-20-20 (every 20 mins, look 20 ft away for 20 sec)

  • Timers on

  • Talk first, tech next

  • Phones off & away unless your teacher says otherwise

If you want, I’ll convert this into a branded Word/PDF pack with:

  • a cover page,

  • three age-specific AUPs,

  • the parent agreement,

  • a confiscation log sheet, and

  • a one-page parent guide.