Banning cellphones in school has gained momentum and it will only grow in the wake of Jonathan Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation, making a persuasive case that “phone-based childhood” is contributing to the child and youth mental health crisis. We may be at a public policy tipping point because a majority of adults – principals, teachers, mental health professionals, and parents now favour a severe restriction or outright ban on the so-called “weapons of mass distraction.”
Banning cellphones has been debated over the past fifteen years and previous policy initiatives in Canada and elsewhere have either stalled or fallen short in their implementation. Now that Haidt’s book is an international best seller, school authorities in the United Sates and Canada are under renewed pressure to rid schools of the “weapons of mass distraction” and to get it right this time around.
TikTok took over the teen world and mobile phone addiction grew from 2019 to 2022, according to San Diego State psychologist Jean Twenge’s latest North American child and teen social media use surveys. It’s now harder than ever to capture attention let alone teach students in classrooms. Banning cellphones provides a temporary respite, but the problem is much wider and runs deeper. For classroom teachers, the real solution lies in curtailing distractions and focusing on developing what Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion described as “habits of attention.”
Cellphone culture has permeated our lives and few are immune to its addictive influences. The re-wiring of teen brains, dubbed “TikTok Brain,” is emerging as a decisive factor tipping the balance in favour of outright school bans or school-wide systematic and enforceable restrictions. Leading educators such as researchED UK founder Tom Bennett and Doug Lemov were among the first to identify the problem – tiny boxes of kryptonite that erode the attention span of students in today’s classrooms.
Mounting research evidence supports initiatives to banish the infernal devices and reclaim the minds of students in schools everywhere. Social media addiction and mobile phone dependence are definitely connected with soaring rates of teen mental health issues, all documented by Dr Jean Twenge and evident in surveys generated by Common Sense Media. Pandemic school closures and social isolation from March 2020 to June 2021 made it far worse. Haidt’s riveting book provides a compelling diagnosis of the problem confronting us in reclaiming the “phone-based generation” and weaning off- younger teachers ensnared in that same web.
School leaders and policy-makers are now far more attuned to the “great rewiring of childhood.” It’s no longer just a school system issue but a societal problem that needs to be tackled across the entire social policy domain – from public heath to education and social services. Momentum is building to roll back phone-based childhood, especially in elementary school and middle school because of the vital importance of protecting kids during early puberty when brains are still in development.
A broad prescription based upon affirming four fundamental social norms can be found in Jon Haidt’s bold and provocative new book:
- No smartphones before high school (as a norm, not a law), and encourage parents to give young kids flip phones, basic phones, or phone watches;
- No social media before 16 (as a norm, but one that would be much more effective if supported by child health and safety protection laws and regulations;
- Phone-free schools (use phone lockers or Yondr pouches for the whole school day, so that students can focus on learning, pay attention to their teachers, and interact with one another;
- Nurture and develop more “free-range children” enabled by a “let grow” philosophy and imbued with a spirit of creativity, more resilience, and better prepared to assume their responsibilities in the real world.
Educational jurisdictions in Europe and Australia have a head start on us. Six years ago, France took the plunge with a system-wide ban on cellphones in class. The United Kingdom joined governments and education authorities around the world in January 2024 in restricting the use of mobile phones in schools. Policy-makers in the U.K. may be more successful because they see it as an extension of the broader ‘student behaviour’ policy committed to ensuring calmer, safer and more productive classrooms.
The public policy needle is beginning to move in Canada, evident from province-to-province over the past year or so. Starting in January 2024, Quebec has imposed new restrictions on the devices in schools, Ontario is reviewing its hole-ridden school-level restrictions, and British Columbia is moving in the same direction. What’s different this time is that governments are approaching it as a public health issue and preparing to close the loopholes in previous policy initiatives. Here in Canada, provincial Child and Youth Advocates, such as Kelly Lamrock of New Brunswick, are now coming onside. That will ensure that it is approached as more of a cross-sectoral movement.
Not much will change until the reclaim childhood from cellphone addiction campaign is seen as a public health initiative supported by significant political will. Only then will the cellphone be seen as the cigarette of the 21st century.
Do smartphones need to be banished from today’s classrooms? What happened to previous initiatives aimed at curbing their use over the past 15 years? Is it necessary to establish conclusively that excessive use “causes mental health issues” in children and teens? Will the plan proposed by Jonathan Haidt in The Anxious Generation (2024) gain widespread adoption?
Educhatter 