We know surprisingly little about the impact of banning smartphones in schools, says Sonia Livingstone, a professor at the London School of Economics who studies how digital technology affects young people. There are relatively few good studies in this area, and those studies that have been done often point in conflicting directions. There’s probably enough evidence to suggest that preventing kids from accessing their phones improves concentration, says Livingstone, but it’s hard to say whether turning off phones causes less bullying or more play. “There is not enough research on that,” he said.
Disentangling how specific issues like bullying, mental health, sleep time, exercise, and concentration are affected by smartphones is tricky, Livingstone said. He points to a lack of mental health services for young people and the low pay and conditions of teachers as other problems that may be ignored by the ban on smartphones. Phones may be part of the problem, he says, but they are also seen as an all-purpose solution. He says: “It seems like we can do something about it, and it seems like a very obvious innovation.”
The proposed new bill would also raise the age at which children can agree to allow social media companies to use their day from 13 to 16. it’s easy for them to shut down and go do things that happen in the real world,” MacAllister told the media Today the exhibition. The UK has already passed legislation in 2023—the Online Safety Act—which is supposed to protect children from certain types of content, but many parts of the act have yet to be implemented.
Rather than focusing on bans, legislators should think more about how to teach children to have a healthy relationship with technology and hold technology companies accountable, said Pete Etchells, a professor at Bath Spa University and the author of the book. On: The Real Science of Screen Time. “We have to think about the way we design [digital technologies] better, and support people in understanding how to use them,” he said.
And getting there, according to Etchells, means moving past simplistic narratives like assuming that limiting screen time will lead to more outdoor play. He points to a 2011 law in South Korea that banned children from playing online games between midnight and 6 a.m. After four years, the ban made no discernible difference in terms of internet use or sleep hours. The law was dropped in 2021.
“If you talk to any mental health professional, any researcher in this area, they will tell you that there is nothing that makes things worse or better,” said Etchells. Looking at the limitations of smartphones as the main answer to the problems facing young people may be an easy answer rather than the right one.
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