Off with their smartphones
Now do the same for those that keep falling for scams
So, Singapore will ban the use of smartphones for secondary school students from next year during school hours. It extends a current ban on smartphone use during lesson time, and is framed as a measure to cultivate healthier screen use habits among students.
I’m glad schools are doing this. As a parent of a 13-year-old teen, I often have to remind her not to use her smartphone at the dining table. My own children have also found creative ways to bypass parental controls on their devices, like using the experimental web browser on their Kobo ebook readers. So I’m sure some students will quickly find workarounds. But I hope I’m wrong, and we’ll see a revival of dumb phones or even Walkmans in schools.
But why stop there? Why not take away smartphones from those who are constantly falling for misinformation and online scams? In fact, why not implement something similar to the family exclusion order that bans inveterate gamblers from visiting casinos and online gambling? But apply that to vulnerable folks that have a poor record with online scams.
In any case, smartphones themselves are not the issue. It’s social media, and how these platforms have become fertile ground for harmful content and misinformation. Cyber-bullying and grooming are other potential harms. These reasons are why Australia is going ahead with a ban on social media for those under 16 later this month. It will be a real-life test case for countries that are considering similar measures to curb social media harms.
In fact, this problem is likely to get worse rather than better, thanks to the potential of AI to muddy the waters with convincing fakes. Many of us now rely on antivirus and security software to detect malware in our computers, but a built-in AI detection or fact-checking tool could be an essential add-on or plugin for any device that’s connected to the internet.
However, current AI detectors aren’t the most reliable themselves, which is why organisations such as Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) and watermarking tools like SynthID are necessary for transparency. And you can see this in action now by asking Gemini to check if an image has been edited using Google AI. It currently works only for content created by Google AI, but it’s a good first step.
In the meantime, with social media platforms unable (or unwilling) to police their content, measures like bans may be the best solution we have now for the vulnerable.
In our latest reviews, we checked out Honor’s new flagship smartphone, a premium Mini-LED from Hisense that offers better value than an entry-level OLED TV, and a travel case for your Nintendo Switch 2 with an included power bank.
If you’re looking for a flagship phone that can take excellent photos, especially from afar, the Honor Magic8 Pro should be on the shortlist. It sports a capable 200MP periscope telephoto that uses AI to further enhance those 100x zoom shots. Its low-light photography is also excellent, capturing detailed shots with good colour. Performance is superb, thanks to its flagship Snapdragon chip, and battery life is also very good.
Worried about OLED burn-in or find it too expensive, especially at larger screen sizes. The solution is a premium Mini-LED TV like the Hisense U8Q, which is plenty bright — and is more suited for a well-lit room than OLEDs — while offering good enough picture quality. The U8Q is also great for PC gamers, since it’s the only TV I have seen that has a USB-C display output for PCs, as well as a fast 165Hz refresh rate.
Planning to travel with your Nintendo Switch 2? Consider the Belkin Charging Case (S$119), which not only protects your game console, but has a 10,000mAh powere bank inside that can offer up to 1.5 charges. This power bank has a LCD to show the amount of charge, and can still charge the Switch 2 even when it’s propped upright using the kickstand. The case is also available at an affordable S$29 without the power bank.