Remember when a mobile phone was a novelty

It was rare enough that I only remember it happening once, and there were no rules in place to govern the use of mobile phones by students. Not that the student in question really knew what she was doing anyway. When the phone rang in a maths classroom, she did not know how to answer it.

Times have changed. But I'm glad I grew up in a time when kids were not glued to mobile devices.

It wasn't long after those days, in the early 2000s, that mobile phones became more prominent. From memory it was the advent of prepaid phones that drove the increasing numbers, when you pay something like 20 cents for each text message you sent. You paid more for calls.

Fast forward more than 20 years and most mobile phone users are not paying much for calls, if anything, with the telco companies making their money out of data as we cart handheld computers around in our pocket.

Everyone it seems now has at least one mobile phone, including all the school kids.

This week we spoke to one of the local schools about how students were coping since mobile phones were banned from the playground.

The ban applies during class time, recess and at lunch. But, students are allowed to carry a phone while travelling to and from school.

But just as we see things have changed over the years, there are some issues we deal with as a community that have not changed, although perhaps we're now more aware of the problems.

At the beginning of the week, one our journos Allison Hore published a story after speaking with local services about domestic violence.

The story also looks at a new report by Superintendent Andrew Hurst, who served for 26 years as a police officer in Western NSW, which recommends Australia explore prevention models like those seen overseas.

As a former court reporter who saw countless domestic violence cases in courtrooms, and spoke with workers at domestic violence services every week, I find it heartening to hear of a proactive approach to what is a massive problem. At the very least it is something we need to discuss.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Laurie Bullock

Editor, Daily Liberal