Restricting pupils’ phone use in school didn’t lead to better grades or mental well-being, a UK study found. Researchers followed 1,227 students in 30 high schools with different phone policies. They discovered that students in schools with restrictive phone policies used their phones slightly less during the school day.
However, these restrictions did not significantly impact their overall phone use or their academic performance and mental health. One author suggested that the results should inform policymakers reconsidering strict phone bans, while another psychologist argued that the links between increased phone use and poorer well-being in young people are likely just correlations. The study compared schools with permissive phone-use policies to those with restrictive policies.
Of the 20 schools with a restrictive policy, only one school used electromagnetic pouches, while most schools allowed students to possess their phones but not use them.
Phone bans in schools questioned
For comparison, research presented to the UK Parliament from the John Wallis Academy noted that introducing electromagnetic pouches resulted in an 82 percent reduction in detentions, 75 percent reduction in truancy, and a significant increase in teacher satisfaction.
Given the current staffing problems, the pouch policy also resulted in a 12 percent reduction in staff turnover. A 2015 study by the London School of Economics showed an improvement in student performance, particularly among low-achieving students, in schools that implemented mobile-phone bans. The University of Birmingham study found that increased smartphone and social media use was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression, reduced sleep duration, increased disruptive classroom behavior, and lower attainment scores.
As shown, overwhelming evidence suggests harms caused by excessive smartphone/social media use among adolescents. While the best policy to combat this is still debated, we need to act now as every child only gets one childhood. The issue should not be whether to support the use of electromagnetic pouches but what additional measures should be implemented to tackle this problem both inside and outside the school environment.
