Why are US states and school districts banning smartphones in schools? | Education News

Los Angeles has joined a growing list of U.S. school districts, states and cities restricting smartphone use in public schools amid a debate over the effects of social media and technology on children and young people.

Last month, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board, responsible for about 1,000 schools, approved a resolution to develop a policy to ban student use of cellphones and social media platforms within 120 days. The policy itself would not be implemented until 2025, however. California passed legislation in 2019 that allows school districts to restrict smartphone use during school hours, with the exception of emergencies.

“When children and teens are in school, they should focus on their studies, not their screens,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom on June 19.

Last week, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for the addition of warning labels to social media platforms, similar to the health warnings that appear on tobacco and alcohol products.

“Social media is associated with significant harm to adolescent mental health. A warning label from the surgeon general, which demands congressional action, would regularly remind parents and teens that social media has not been proven safe,” Murthy wrote in The New York Times.

Where else have smartphones been banned in US schools?

The states of Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma and Florida have already imposed statewide restrictions on smartphone use in public schools.

Indiana Senate Bill 185, which prohibits students from using a device during school hours, was signed into law by Governor Eric Holcomb in March and took effect on July 1.

Last month, Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio signed House Bill 250, requiring school districts to limit smartphone use in classrooms to reduce distractions. The bill leaves it up to local school administrators to create their own smartphone bans. Exceptions will be made for medical or health emergencies.

“By limiting these distractions, we will reestablish the opportunity for Ohio students to immerse themselves in class, learn from their teachers, and create lifelong memories with their closest friends,” DeWine said in a statement.

In February, the Oklahoma Senate Appropriations Committee also decided to impose a ban restricting the use of smartphones in schools. Under Senate Bill 1314students are prohibited from using smartphones on public school campuses.

“Being normal children, like children were before social media, is important. Social media (causes) more problems than it solves, and I think it does more harm than good,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in May last year, after passing a law banning smartphones and other wireless devices. wires in schools during school hours. Similar to Ohio’s smartphone ban, local school districts can decide how they want to implement it.

“So let’s make our education system based as much as possible on traditional education,” DeSantis said at the time. The Florida law also blocks student access to Wi-Fi and requires that social media literacy be taught in schools.

Although there is no statewide ban in Michigan, some school districts have banned the use of smartphones in schools. In January, the Flint Board of Education implemented a phone ban in school buildings and on school buses.

Last month, New York State Governor Kathy Hochul said she plans to implement a statewide ban on phones in schools starting in 2025 to protect young people’s mental health. New York City previously imposed a ban but dropped it in 2015, leaving schools to decide for themselves.

In a recent interview with a local news station, David Banks, president of the New York City Public Schools, stated: “Not only are they a distraction, kids are now completely addicted to phones… Let’s ban the use of phones. telephones in schools.”

Why are smartphones in schools a problem?

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. high school teachers say smartphones are a major distraction in the classroom, according to a Pew Research survey conducted last November.

“High school teachers are especially likely to find cell phones problematic. About seven in 10 (72 percent) say student distraction from cell phones is a big problem in their classrooms, compared with 33 percent of secondary school teachers and six percent of elementary school teachers ,” the Pew survey reported.

“If you talk to safety experts, they’ll tell you it’s actually better for the child if they’re not all on their cell phone,” said Oklahoma state Rep. Chad Caldwell, sponsor of the state bill banning smartphones in schools in February this year. .

“First, they are quieter, but number two, they can pay attention to the teacher or adult in the room to help them give instructions.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in an interview with The Guardian last month: “I’ve seen these addictive algorithms lure young people in, literally capture them and make them prisoners in a space where they are isolated from human connection, from social interaction and normal life. classroom activity.”

What do child mental health experts say?

Some experts noted that the rise in popularity of smartphones in the early 2010s was the tipping point where administrators and health experts began to see a difference in young people’s mental health.

“We are trying to explain why in many countries, between the years 2010 and 2015, there was a sudden and sharp drop in a number of different measures of well-being and mental health among adolescents, and in particular among adolescent girls,” Zach Rausch , associate research scientist at NYU-Stern School of Business, told Al Jazeera.

“But what we are trying to show is that the main driver of the sudden change that happened during this period, we think, is linked to the rapid movement of social life among teenagers to smartphones and social media.”

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, said his research has identified a strong link between smartphone use and declining mental health.

“For the teachers and administrators I spoke with, this was no mere coincidence. They saw clear links between the rise in phone addiction and declining mental health, not to mention declining academic performance,” Haidt wrote on his Substack, After Babel.

“A common theme in my conversations with them was: we all hate phones. Keeping students away from them during class was a constant struggle. Getting students’ attention was more difficult because they seemed permanently distracted and congenitally distracted.”

Does banning smartphones in schools work?

Little research has been done on this topic and many experts argue that the data is inconclusive about the impact of these bans.

Marilyn Campbell, professor of early childhood and inclusive education in the Faculty of Education at the Queensland University of Technology, and Elizabeth Edwards, associate professor of education at the University of Queensland, Australia, conducted a “scoping review” of global published and unpublished evidence to for and against banning cell phones in schools. The findings were published in March.

A scoping review is carried out on a topic for which there are not many studies. The review covered 1,317 articles and reports including dissertations by master’s and doctoral students, written between 2007, when the smartphone was first introduced, until May 2023.

Additionally, they identified 22 studies that examined schools before and after phone bans. The studies covered schools in Bermuda, China, the Czech Republic, Ghana, Malawi, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

In their initial research, Campbell and Edwards said they found only weak evidence of the benefits of banning smartphones in schools.

However, Policy Exchange, a British educational think tank, published a study in May – The Case for a Smartphone Ban in Schools – which it said “shows a clear correlation between an effective phone ban and improved school performance.”

Rausch said: “Interestingly, in the schools we know of that have gone phone-free – sometimes it’s difficult at first, the first week or so, partly because it’s like cutting out the caffeine habit. You will be very unhappy for a while. But as time passes, children begin to concentrate more in class.

“We have never met a school that has stopped using the telephone and regretted that decision.”

So is it a good idea to ban phones in schools?

Opinions on how to deal with the impact of smartphones and social media vary considerably. Some oppose a complete ban on smartphone use in schools, saying that removing critical communication devices from schools will not solve the root of the problem.

“I don’t think bans solve what we’re trying to solve, which is trying to get our kids to understand when it’s appropriate to use phones and when it’s not,” Keri Rodrigues, president of US-based National Parents, said. Union, he told Al Jazeera.

However, Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of Smartphone Free Childhood in the UK, a parent-led organization that focuses on responsible smartphone use with children, said she supports restrictions on smartphone use.

“We feel like childhood is being colonized by Big Tech in a way that as a society we don’t talk to each other enough,” Greenwell told Al Jazeera. “Teachers tell us that the biggest problems they face at school come from smartphones and the social side and the social problems that it causes for students.”

Some argue that banning smartphones in schools may mitigate distractions and improve concentration, but it may also deprive students of valuable learning resources and essential communication tools.

“School has been the same for 120 years, where children go from nine to three, have long holidays, sit at desks and have to regurgitate what adults tell them to learn, basically all over the world. We’re blaming kids for falling academic standards, we’re blaming the rise in mental health problems, we’re blaming the rise in cyberbullying. Ah, well, it must all be the cell phone’s fault,” Marilyn Campbell told Al Jazeera.

“I mean, what a simplistic view of how we’re raising our children in a different world and taking away that main tool that we all use in society and saying, ‘No, kids can’t have that right now.’”