School phone bans do not improve grades or mental health, says new report
School phone bans do not improve grades or mental health, says new report
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Restricting phone use at school does not improve grades or mental well-being in young people, a landmark study has found. The University of Birmingham study found students’ sleep, exercise, academic record, and exercise did not differ between schools with and without phone bans in place. Evidence also showed restrictive phone policies did not lower the overall time young people spent on their phones throughout the day.
The findings, which have since been peer-reviewed and published, compared 1,227 students and 30 different secondary schools. “There is no evidence to support that restrictive school phone policies, in their current forms, have a beneficial effect on adolescents’ mental health and wellbeing or related outcomes,” it concluded. However, increased screen time did impact the mental health, classroom behaviour, physical activity and sleep cycles of students overall.
Dr Victoria Goodyear, the study’s lead author, told the BBC that school phone bans were not an effective way to tackle the negative impacts of overusing phones. “What we’re suggesting is that those bans in isolation are not enough to tackle the negative impacts,” she said. “We need to do more than just ban phones in schools.”. The study called for a more “holistic” approach to lowering phone use among students.
“This approach does not necessarily preclude restrictive school mobile phone policies,” the study concluded. “But these policies would be linked with a wider holistic approach to adolescent mobile phone and social media use.”. It comes days after the Education Secretary rejected calls to bring in a new law to ban phones in classrooms, as she branded the Conservative party’s proposal a “headline-grabbing gimmick”.
Bridget Phillipson said she agreed that mobile phones should not be in lessons, but added the opposition was wrong to say it could only be done by introducing legislation. The Conservative party said last week that it would table an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would require the Government to ban phones in classrooms. Shadow education secretary Laura Trott asked Ms Phillipson whether she would support her party’s plans.
