Cell phone bans at school are trending. Do they work?

Earlier this year, Florida passed a law requiring public schools across the state to ban students from using cell phones during class. The new state rules reflect an intensifying global crackdown on youth and social media.

At the beginning of October, the UK government issued new guidelines recommending that students use mobile phones banned in schools across the country. Italy followed suit last year prohibited mobile phones during classes, and China, two years ago prohibits children from taking phones to school.

a recent report from UNESCO, the United Nations educational and cultural agency, found that nearly one in four countries now have laws or policies that ban or restrict students’ use of cell phones in schools. Such bans typically make exceptions for students with disabilities and for educational applications approved by educators.

Still, the crackdown on smartphones is controversial.

Supporters say the ban will deter students from scrolling through social media and sending bullying text messages, reducing distractions in the classroom. Critics warn that cutting off students’ phones could disproportionately affect those with jobs or family responsibilities — and that enforcing the bans could encourage harsh disciplinary measures, such as school suspensions.

While some schools have seen significant reductions in cyberbullying incidents, there has been little rigorous research into the long-term effects of the bans.

How did the bans start?

School districts in the United States have been experimenting with phone bans for more than thirty years.

In 1989, as Sales of illegal drugs increased, Maryland passed a law making it illegal for students to bring pagers and devices then known as “cell phones” to school. Violators may face fines and imprisonment. In the 1990s, as more students brought cellphones to school, districts also implemented bans on removing the disruptive devices that kept ringing during classes.

In the early 2000s, after the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado and the September 11 terrorist attacks, schools began to roll back their cell phone bans for security reasons – allowing students to contact their parents during emergencies.

Bans soon increased again as schools tried to curb new distractions in the classroom: iPhones and popular mobile apps like Facebook. In 2010, more than 90 percent of schools banned student use of cell phones during school hours federal data.

But concerns that many students from low-income families who couldn’t afford their own laptops were using cellphones for educational purposes caused some school districts to reconsider their views. Only in 2016 two-thirds of the schools prohibited mobile phones.

Since then, warnings about compulsive social media use and cyberbullying have prompted more schools to impose bans. Last week, dozens of researchers and child activists sent a message a letter to Secretary Miguel Cardona to ask the Ministry of Education to issue an advisory calling on schools across the country to ban mobile phones.

Why do schools ban phones?

Young people have filmed violent school fights and posted the videos on TikTok. Students have also taken part in social media challenges vandalizing school property.

In 2021, 16 percent of U.S. high school students said they had been bullied in the past year via text messages or social media platforms like Instagram. a report this year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some students are also inundated with notifications on social media. A recent report from Common Sense Media, which tracked about 200 young people with Android phones, found that participants typically received 237 cell phone notifications during the day — about a quarter of them during school hours.

Does a mobile phone ban at school work?

National reports on cell phone bans in schools offer mixed results.

a federal investigation of school principals in 2016 found that schools with cell phone bans reported more cyberbullying than schools where cell phone use was allowed. (The report offered no explanation for why schools with cellphone bans reported higher rates of cyberbullying.)

A survey among schools in Spain published last year shows that this is the case a significant reduction in cyberbullying in two regions that had imposed cell phone bans at school. In one of those regions, math and science scores also rose significantly.

A recent one study in Norway found that female students exposed to smartphone bans in high school had higher average grades. But the bans had “no effect” on boys’ grade point averages, perhaps because girls spent more time on their phones, the study said.

What should schools do?

The recent UNESCO report recommends that schools proceed cautiously, consider the role of new technologies in learning and base their policies on sound evidence.

The UN agency also suggested that exposure to digital tools such as mobile phones could help students take a critical look at emerging technologies.

“Students need to learn the risks and opportunities that technology brings, develop crucial skills and understand how to live with and without technology,” UNESCO said. “Shielding students from new and innovative technology can put them at a disadvantage.”