# Should Schools Ban Phones? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 7, 2023, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135 "2023-06-07T02:50:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/81 "2023-06-14T19:36:12Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > When you had Sisters of Mercy, you didn’t need internet. Oh, the Sisters of Mercy they are not departed or gone They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can’t go on… ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2023, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/82 "2023-06-14T19:44:48Z")
_Oh The Sisters of Mercy They are not forgotten or cold They are still on the line wrongly Placed by my smartphone on hold_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/83 "2023-06-16T02:14:06Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Since you’re all mentioning nuns, while I’m not Catholic, more than once I’ve seen teenagers texting each other during the sermon. The first time I saw that, I thought, “How rude!” and then remembered that we used the bulletin for that purpose when I was that age. I’m at a Catholic school now, which means we occasionally have a Mass at school. And we don’t have any priests associated with the school, so when this happens, we always have some guest priest or another, usually different for each mass. At one mass, during the sermon, the priest was making some point about what things each of us consider important, and so he asked all the students to get out their phones and look at the images they’d chosen for their backgrounds. Which was a bit awkward, since the administration had decided that phone use during Mass was getting out of hand, and had decreed a couple of days before that all phones were to be left in the classroom before going down to Mass. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2023, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/84 "2023-10-05T19:18:04Z")
Teachers feel they have no power. > **[Opinion | Teachers Can’t Hold Students Accountable. It’s Making the Job...](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/opinion/teachers-grades-students-parents.html)** > > And it’s damaging a generation. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2023, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/85 "2023-10-06T09:02:16Z")
The UK is falling in line with other (European) countries that have already implemented a ban, including France, Italy and Portugal and follows warnings from the United Nations on the risks of smartphones in schools. The Department for Education has announced a ban on mobile phone usage in schools but most schools already have their own restrictions on phone usage in place. These range from pupils being required to hand in their phones at the beginning of the day and collect them when they leave, to allowing them to keep them but risk confiscation if they use them in class. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/86 "2023-11-26T13:20:28Z")
Update. > **[Opinion | Schools should ban smartphones. Parents should help.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/25/ban-smartphones-parents/)** > > The evidence that smartphones harm young people is impossible to ignore. Why are parents helping to keep them in schools? ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/87 "2023-11-26T16:57:45Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > The Department for Education has announced a ban on mobile phone usage in schools but most schools already have their own restrictions on phone usage in place. These range from pupils being required to hand in their phones at the beginning of the day and collect them when they leave, to allowing them to keep them but risk confiscation if they use them in class. In a discussion this school year, a friend who teaches HS told of a student who is always on her phone such that she ignores everything done in class, but the student and her mother both insist she needs her phone near her due to her anxiety and ADD. I suspect that would not be an isolated instance. At the end of last year, the school was emptied following a bomb threat, and both of our friends who teach there described the urgency with which students and their parents felt a need to get in touch with each other. Personally, I feel cellphones should remain in lockers - or at most - in silent mode in backpacks or pockets during class time. But in today’s climate I would expect any significant efforts to encounter stiff resistance. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/88 "2023-11-26T17:01:20Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > From my experience in a middle school, I firmly believe two things about student phones: > A) Students and the school community would be better off without them. In middle school? Yes. I teach HS seniors so I teach responsible ways to use the phone for research and calculator apps … but no way I would try that with our freshmen. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > In a discussion this school year, a friend who teaches HS told of a student who is always on her phone such that she ignores everything done in class, but the student and her mother both insist she needs her phone near her due to her anxiety and ADD. I got a box of fidget toys for those students that need to always be playing with their phone. What a godsend. $20 on Amazon and definitely worth twice as much. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/89 "2023-11-26T17:15:01Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I got a box of fidget toys for those students that need to always be playing with their phone. What a godsend. $20 on Amazon and definitely worth twice as much. I don’t believe for a second that this little shit “needs” to be playing with their phone - or anything else. Or that she would willingly surrender her phone for a fidget toy. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/90 "2023-11-26T17:29:45Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > In a discussion this school year, a friend who teaches HS told of a student who is always on her phone such that she ignores everything done in class, but the student and her mother both insist she needs her phone near her due to her anxiety and ADD. I suspect that would not be an isolated instance. That might actually be true. Some people are literally addicted to their phones. I once saw a student going into DTs because he couldn’t find it. This is, of course, a real and very big problem, but it’s not as easily solved as “you absolutely must give up all use of your phone right now”. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/91 "2023-11-26T17:41:23Z")
Some people are addicted to nicotine, but that isn’t given as a reason to allow smoking in class. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/92 "2023-11-26T17:48:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That might actually be true. Some people are literally addicted to their phones. [The NIH isn’t sure it agrees with you.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6174603/) _Although the majority of research in the field declares that smartphones are addictive or takes the existence of smartphone addiction as granted, we did not find sufficient support from the addiction perspective to confirm the existence of smartphone addiction at this time. The behaviors observed in the research could be better labeled as problematic or maladaptive smartphone use and their consequences do not meet the severity levels of those caused by addiction._ ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2023, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/93 "2023-11-26T17:53:16Z")
One way to address this is to start with banning phones in elementary schools and extend the ban to upper grades year-by-year. That way the ban will only initially affect those students who aren’t yet addicted to their phones and gradually cover all the school years. Banning phones at all grades now would be like expecting smokers to go cold turkey. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2024, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/94 "2024-03-13T13:16:36Z")
More grist for the idea? > **[The Terrible Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/teen-childhood-smartphone-use-mental-health-effects/677722/)** > > For a little over a decade, we have been raising children in an environment that is hostile to human development. We need to change that now. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2024, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/95 "2024-03-13T13:18:27Z")
**Excerpt** _Something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescents in the early 2010s. By now you’ve likely seen the [statistics](https://www.afterbabel.com/p/the-teen-mental-illness-epidemic): Rates of depression and anxiety in the United States—fairly stable in the 2000s—rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it [rose](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-LHLFtEYZ3yG2qml2R2qDjmfO4nJ1x-fv2JfDFq5L3E/edit#gid=0)131 percent._ _The problem was not limited to the U.S.: Similar patterns emerged around the same time in [Canada, the U.K.,](https://www.afterbabel.com/p/international-mental-illness-part-one) [Australia, New Zealand](https://www.afterbabel.com/p/anglo-teen-suicide), [the Nordic countries](https://www.afterbabel.com/p/international-mental-illness-part-two), and [beyond](https://www.afterbabel.com/p/international-crisis-europe). By a variety of measures and in a variety of countries, the members of Generation Z (born in and after 1996) are suffering from anxiety, depression, self-harm, and related disorders at levels higher than any other generation for which we have data._ _The decline in mental health is [just one of many signs](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a8FdVAfbgLhpMgkIFGnGSDPv85BSpsksyEOlkSIe1ac/edit) that something went awry. [Loneliness and friendlessness](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kvIPnbYrYrymQGueld48gACSYXFYfzCfMkdCpkmHKAw/edit?usp=sharing) among American teens began to surge around 2012. Academic achievement went down, too. According to “The Nation’s Report Card,” scores in [reading and math began](https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2023/) to decline for U.S. students after 2012, reversing decades of slow but generally steady increase. PISA, the major international measure of educational trends, [shows that declines in math, reading, and science happened globally, also beginning](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/cell-phones-student-test-scores-dropping/676889/) in the early 2010s._ _As the oldest members of Gen Z reach their late 20s, their troubles are carrying over into adulthood. Young adults are [dating less](https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9781982181611), having [less](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-03/young-adults-less-sex-gen-z-millennials-generations-parents-grandparents) sex, and showing [less interest](https://unherd.com/thepost/why-doesnt-gen-z-want-children/) in ever having children than prior generations. They are [more likely](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/04/a-majority-of-young-adults-in-the-u-s-live-with-their-parents-for-the-first-time-since-the-great-depression/) to live with their parents. They were [less likely to get jobs as teens](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iO7D7uaELibyM2SiW_2MaGSi9Z91CXdG0y9QzfLaswk/edit#gid=382397922), and managers say they are [harder](https://thehill.com/business/4074677-gen-zers-make-difficult-employees-managers-say/) to work with. Many of these trends began with earlier generations, but most of them accelerated with Gen Z._ **Generations are not monolithic, of course. Many young people are flourishing.** _I think the answer can be stated simply, although the underlying psychology is complex: Those were the years when adolescents in rich countries traded in their flip phones for smartphones and moved much more of their social lives online—particularly onto social-media platforms [designed for virality and addiction](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/facebook-papers-democracy-election-zuckerberg/620478/). Once young people began carrying the entire internet in their pockets, available to them day and night, it altered their daily experiences and developmental pathways across the board. Friendship, dating, sexuality, exercise, sleep, academics, politics, family dynamics, identity—all were affected…_ ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/96 "2024-03-13T19:47:08Z")
Kinda related, a recent WSJ article titled “Stop Constantly Asking Kids How They Feel” Apologies, no WSJ gift link available. Mod notified to confirm whether link appropriate. Archived version available [here.](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39652229) > [@](#): > > … Instead of constantly asking kids to name how they feel in the moment, adults should be telling kids how imperfect and unreliable their emotions can be. This means helping them recognize not only that their feelings of envy or indignation or infatuation rarely reflect a full and accurate picture of the world, but also that they sometimes deserve to be ignored. > > A healthy emotional life involves a certain amount of repression. … ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/97 "2024-04-29T01:59:38Z")
This seems like a reasonable idea to me. > **[Ontario introducing plan to limit cellphone use, social media, vaping in schools](https://torontosun.com/news/provincial/ontario-introducing-plan-to-limit-cellphone-use-social-media-and-vaping-in-schools)** > > Ontario will limit cellphone use in classrooms, restrict access to all social-media networks and ban vaping on school properties this fall. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/98 "2024-04-29T05:12:03Z")
The Toronto Sun? 🙄 But yes, here’s a more reputable take on the issue: > **[Ontario tightens rules on cellphone use, bans vaping in schools | CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-school-cellphone-police-stephen-lecce-1.7187409)** > > The Ontario government is introducing new measures to crack down on cellphone use and vaping in schools as the province sees an "alarming rise" of vaping and cellphone distractions in classrooms. As far as I’m concerned, “smart” phones are a plague on society. I live near some big public schools and the kids I see walking by typically have their faces in a head-down attitude apparently transfixed by something they’re seeing in an object that they’re holding. Yeah, and this is part of the reason … > **[Social media gets teens hooked while feeding aggression and impulsivity, and...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/smartphone-brain-nov14-1.7029406)** > > Both regulation and more parental involvement needed to rein in social media experiment, psychiatrists and scientists say. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/99 "2024-04-29T05:25:24Z")
The Sun has the advantage of short articles which use no big words. They get the main idea across. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2024, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135/100 "2024-04-29T11:16:55Z")
So these exciting new rules are that students have to keep their phones in their bags? > As part of these changes, teachers will undergo mandatory training Ah yes, there it is. “Mr Bravo, we’ve heard that you’re having trouble convincing your students to not look at their phones. This is concerning since you participated in the district-mandated 40-minute training during preplanning this year. Have you even tried using the eight-step de-escalation acronym we talked about?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-schools-ban-phones/985135.md?page=6)