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The rules for cell phone usage can be changed at any time. If you feel your child is out of control or is caught using the phone inappropriately, don't be afraid to change the rules. Be prepared for the backlash (a.k.a. a tantrum), but hold firm. Eventually your child will accept the new rules -

Just like we wouldn't allow a 16-year-old who has never driven to go on a solo trip in our new car, we have a responsibility to guide our students in discerning good technology usage. When teachers say, "No, I don't want it in my classroom," they are limiting potential for their learning environment and for each student individually.  We must reach beyond our fears, hesitantly if need be, and embrace change and technology so our students can be future-ready.

Finnish system is praised extraordinarily highly for its global success, and yet students don’t work terribly hard, have many choices, use technology creatively, enjoy the integration of the arts, and learn in a culture which emphasizes depth over breadth and less is more.

Students are shown researching and collaborating online in their studies, and many classrooms are shown with a wide array of technological units, not just computers.   Students use wikipedia and facebook when researching very current topics, and Wagner explains that there is a culture of trust that is extended to students in their technology usage.

A particularly inspiring moment comes when Wagner reports stumbling across a project at one school, the “Innovation Camp,” in which teams of students are given 26 hours to come up with a new product or service.  

Other districts take a different policy stand. While they also use blocking and filtering that federal law requires, their policy is based on the premise that children need to learn how to be responsible users and that such cannot occur if the young person has no real choice. School personnel who take this stand contend that students need to acquire the skills and dispositions of responsible Internet usage and to be held accountable for their behavior. Moreover, those holding this position contend that restrictive school networks may provide more of an appearance of protection than reality since they can be bypassed by students. Schools with less restrictive environments often distinguish between the restrictiveness appropriate for older and younger students since young children may stumble across sites they ought not visit. 

Policies answer the “what” and “why” questions. Procedures answer the “how,” “who,” and “when” questions.

they’re much more likely to say that spending time interacting with each other online has a positive impact on their social-emotional lives than a negative one.

, we found that for all the public attention to the amount of time kids spend with digital media, parents are logging almost as many hours as their kids

Generally speaking, the press coverage of these issues is not well balanced, and the public mostly hears negative and alarming stories about cell phone addiction and cyberbullying and children holed up alone in their rooms.