banning of cellphones in school argumentative essay

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Why Cell Phones Should Be Allowed in School

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Published: Sep 7, 2023

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Educational benefits: a powerful learning tool, safety and security: a lifeline in critical situations, communication and parental involvement: a partnership for success, addressing concerns: responsible use and effective policies.

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Why Schools Should Ban Cell Phones in the Classroom—and Why Parents Have to Help

New study shows it takes a young brain 20 minutes to refocus after using a cell phone in a classroom

Photo by skynesher/iStock

Parents, the next time you are about to send a quick trivial text message to your students while they’re at school—maybe sitting in a classroom—stop. And think about this: it might take them only 10 seconds to respond with a thumbs-up emoji, but their brain will need 20 minutes to refocus on the algebra or history or physics lesson in front of them— 20 minutes .

That was just one of the many findings in a recent report from a 14-country study by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) that prompted this headline in the Washington Post : “Schools should ban smartphones. Parents should help.” The study recommends a ban on smartphones at school for students of all ages, and says the data are unequivocal, showing that countries that enforce restrictions see improved academic performance and less bullying.

It’s a fraught debate, one that prompts frustration among educators, who say students are less focused than ever as schools struggle to enforce cell phone limitation policies, and rage from some parents, worrying about a possible shooting when they can’t get in touch, who insist they need to be able to reach their children at all times. And, perhaps surprisingly, it prompts a collective yawn from students.

In fact, students openly admit their cell phones distract them and that they focus better in school without them, says Joelle Renstrom , a senior lecturer in rhetoric at Boston University’s College of General Studies. It’s an issue she has studied for years. She even performed an experiment with her students that supports what she long suspected: Cell Phones + Classrooms = Bad Learning Environment.

BU Today spoke with Renstrom about the latest study and research.

with Joelle Renstrom

Bu today: let me get right to the point. do we as a society need to be better about restricting cell phones in classrooms it seems so obvious..

Renstrom: Of course. But it is easier said than done. It’s hard to be consistent. We will always have students with some kind of reason, or a note from someone, that gives them access to technology. And then it becomes hard to explain why some people can have it and some people can’t. But student buy-in to the idea is important.

BU Today: But is getting students to agree more important than getting schools and parents to agree? Is it naive to think that students are supposed to follow the rules that we as parents and teachers set for them?

Renstrom: I have made the case before that addiction to phones is kind of like second-hand smoking. If you’re young and people around you are using it, you are going to want it, too. Every baby is like that. They want to reach for it, it’s flashing, their parents are on it all the time. Students openly acknowledge they are addicted. Their digital lives are there. But they also know there is this lack of balance in their lives. I do think buy-in is important. But do it as an experiment. Did it work? What changes did it make? Did it make you anxious or distracted during those 50 minutes in class? I did that for years. I surveyed students for a number of semesters; how do you feel about putting your phone in a pouch? They made some predictions and said what they thought about how annoying it was. But at the end, they talked about how those predictions [played out], and whether they were better able to focus. It was very, very clear they were better able to focus. Also interestingly, not a single student left during class to get a drink or go to the bathroom. They had been 100 percent doing that just so they could use their phone.

BU Today: Should we be talking about this question, cell phones in classrooms, for all ages, middle school all the way through college? Or does age matter?

Renstrom: It’s never going to be universal. Different families, different schools. And there is, on some level, a safety issue. I do not blame parents for thinking, if there’s someone with a gun in school, I need a way to reach my kids. What if all the phones are in pouches when someone with a gun comes in? It’s crazy that we even have to consider that.

BU Today: What’s one example of something that can be changed easily?

Renstrom: Parents need to stop calling their kids during the day. Stop doing that. What you are doing is setting that kid up so that they are responding to a bot 24-7 when they shouldn’t be. If you’re a kid who gets a text from your parent in class, you are conditioned to respond and to know that [the parent] expects a response. It adds so much anxiety to people’s lives. It all just ends up in this anxiety loop. When kids are in school, leave them alone. Think about what that phone is actually meant for. When you gave them a phone, you said it’s in case of an emergency or if you need to be picked up in a different place. Make those the parameters. If it’s just to confirm, “I’m still picking you up at 3,” then no, don’t do that. Remember when we didn’t have to confirm? There is a time and place for this, for all technology.

BU Today: This latest study, how do you think people will react to it?

Renstrom: This isn’t new. How many studies have to come out to say that cured meat is terrible and is carcinogenic. People are like, “Oh, don’t tell me what to eat. Or when to be on my phone.” This gets real contentious, real fast because telling people what’s good for them is hard.

BU Today: I can understand that—but in this case we’re not telling adults to stop being on their phones. We’re saying help get your kids off their phones in classrooms, for their health and education.

Renstrom: Studies show kids’ brains, and their gray matter, are low when they are on screens. School is prime habit-forming time. You should not sit in class within view of the professor, laughing while they are talking about World War II. There is a social appropriateness that needs to be learned. Another habit that needs to be addressed is the misconception of multitasking. We are under this misconception we all can do it. And we can’t. You might think, I can listen to this lecture while my sister texts me. That is not supported by science or studies. It is literally derailing you. Your brain jumps off to another track and has to get back on. If you think you have not left that first track, you are wrong.

BU Today: So what next steps would you like to see?

Renstrom: I would like to see both schools and families be more assertive about this. But also to work together. If the parents are anti-smartphone policy, it doesn’t matter if the school is pro-policy. If there is a war between parents and schools, I am not sure much will happen. Some kind of intervention and restriction is better than just ripping it away from kids. The UNESCO study found it is actually even worse for university students. We are all coming at this problem from all different ways. Pouches or banned phones. Or nothing.

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Doug Most is a lifelong journalist and author whose career has spanned newspapers and magazines up and down the East Coast, with stops in Washington, D.C., South Carolina, New Jersey, and Boston. He was named Journalist of the Year while at The Record in Bergen County, N.J., for his coverage of a tragic story about two teens charged with killing their newborn. After a stint at Boston Magazine , he worked for more than a decade at the Boston Globe in various roles, including magazine editor and deputy managing editor/special projects. His 2014 nonfiction book, The Race Underground , tells the story of the birth of subways in America and was made into a PBS/American Experience documentary. He has a BA in political communication from George Washington University. Profile

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There are 37 comments on Why Schools Should Ban Cell Phones in the Classroom—and Why Parents Have to Help

i found this very helpful with my research

It was ok, but i will say i enjoyed learning more about why we should not have cell phones.

in think they should not be banned

It was a great research, helped me a lot.

true it is vary helpful for reasearch

I think that this was helpful, but there is an ongoing question at my school, which is, though phones may be negative to health and knowledge and they’re a distraction what happens if there was a shooting or a fire or a dangourus weather event and you don’t have a phone to tell your parents or guardians at home if you are alright? (Reply answer if have one)

Yeah they would get an amber alert

well, the school has the technology that can help communicate that to the parents, and if that were to happen, I guess that’s why there’s always a cell phone in the classrooms those old-time ones, but I feel it would not be okay in case of a shooting since you have to go silence, and on the moment of fire or weather everything happens so fast in the moment.

Yeah, that’s exactly why they have those supplies or items in the classroom, to alert parents. Kids don’t need to use their phones for that.

In schools all teachers have cell phones. So one way or the other the messages would get out to the parents as needed. If a student gets on the cell phone to inform the parent about the activity, that’s taken place it could cause panic. School staffs are informed as to how to handle such situations.. what I have seen take place in classes are students who are texting each other either in the same room or in another classroom during the school time. Many students spend time on YouTube and not concentrating what’s going on in the classroom.

Teachers have communication with all parents and it also has amber alerts

You just give the kids watches to call there parents or guardians on.

I’m a teacher. If there’s an event like this, it could be detrimental to the emergency system if too many people are calling. Also, kids don’t have the common sense to turn their ringers off. They go off in my class, more often than they should.. If there’s a shooter in any school, parents are going to be calling their kids. Phones constantly going off could lead a shooter to specific places if they can hear them. I understand the parent’s arguments as to why they want their kids to have their phones, but that very argument could lead to their child being hurt or killed in the scenario mentioned above.

I think that this was helpful, but there is an ongoing question at my school, which is, though phones may be negative to health and knowledge and they’re a distraction what happens if there is a shooting or a fire or a dangerous weather event and you don’t have a phone to tell your parents or guardians at home if you are alright?

I am writing a paper and this is very helpful thank you.

I am writing a paper and this is very helpful but it is true what if our mom or dad have to contact us we need phones!

this helped me with my school project about whether cell phones should be banned in school. I think yes but the class is saying no. I think it’s because I was raised without a phone so I know how to survive and contact my parents without a phone. but anyway, this helped me with my essay! thank you!

yes i’m am doing the same thing .this helped a lot

I don’t think phones should be allowed in school, and this is perfect backup! Thank you Doug

great infromation for debate

Thanks, this helped a lot I’m working on an essay and this has been really helpful.by the way, some people may think, but what if i need to call my mom/dad/guardian. but the real thing is, there is a high chance that there will be a telephone near you. or if it’s something that only you want them to know,go ahead and ask your teacher if you can go to the office.

I mean it could also depend on the student, like for example let’s say that i’m a student inside the school, if I used my phone and I got off it, for me it would instant focus, but for others students they might take longer or the same time as me, it all really depends if the student is tend to be responsible with their time trying to focus so I would say that this claim is not true.

I think that is article was very good. I’m currently writing and essay and I have used this for most of my evidence so far. I personally think that cellphones should be banned from the classroom because the school will get the information that your parents need out to them so you don’t have to cause a panic because you don’t know if your parents know what is going on at your school or not. It will just be better because then we wouldn’t have as many distractions in the classrooms as we do now because kids are always getting caught on their phones and they are constantly being sent down to the office and it takes time to get the class back on track. I personally agree with Doug that cellphones should be banned in the classrooms.

It’s striking to realize that the reason some parents feel the need to advocate for phone usage in school is due to concerns about a potential school shooting. While parents may be more informed about the harmful effects of smartphones in a learning environment, they take preference for the safety of their child in a hypothetical situation. It’s a hard debate because while the safety of their children is important, the drastic effects of students needing 20 minutes to refocus is significantly impacting their ability to learn in their classes. I find it very saddening that this is what our world has come to – prioritizing safety for a school shooting over academic performance, because it is no longer so unusual for a school to experience that type of tragedy.

I liked the comment, “Addiction to phones is kind of like second-hand smoking. If you’re young and people around you are using it, you are going to want it too,” because I experienced this phenomenon in my early middle school years, with the invention of the first iPhone. All of a sudden an invention that was broadcasted on the news became an essential for the other students in my middle school class, to the point where I became one of the only students without one. Then, I finally succumbed to the pressure, and begged my parents for an iPhone as I felt extremely left out. It’s frustrating to accept that this pressure is affecting children now younger and younger by the year, with even six year old children I babysit owning their own iPhone/iPad.

I also think that with the prevalence of child phone usage significantly increases parental anxiety, particularly for those parents who are already overbearing to start. Giving parents the ability to contact their child at any given time is harmful, and it can create a dependence on either side. It’s ironic given the fact that parents push their children to focus and succeed in their classes, yet harass them all day about minuscule things that could’ve been addressed later that day. So yes, parents need to stop calling their kids during the day.

this helped me with my school project, very reliable source.

I think that this talked more about why parents should help more than why cell phones should be banned.

I think the teachers or guardians will allow you to contact someone but I think after the shooting or crisis they will contact your parents or guardian from the office or person in charge

I agree, I’m 13 and I honestly could live without a phone

i also agree but parents need to reach their kids somehow if something happens in school

I’m also 13

had to research this for an assingnment and onistlly, I love my phone and I would marry it if I could!

This is really reasonable. In my school my friends have cell phones and there is a lot of drama. I am writing a report on this.

This is really good

I’ve taught high school since 1999. Should cell phones be banned? 100% Absolutley. I don’t think twice about it.

this was a little helpful but i still need my phone in school

for what you need your education your phone doesn’t teach you stuff

very helpful for me but I do think that we should still have phones in school. my daughter has a phone and she says that at some point the schools need to think about the safety of children. she is ten yrs old and one day when she almost forgot her phone but she remembered and grabbed but a homeless man came up to her asking her if she wanted some food and good thing she had her phone because she called me crying saying that the schools say no phones but I grabbed it today anyway and I almost got kidnapped

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Bans may help protect classroom focus, but districts need to stay mindful of students’ sense of connection, experts say

Students around the world are being separated from their phones.

In 2020, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that 77 percent of U.S. schools had moved to prohibit cellphones for nonacademic purposes. In September 2018, French lawmakers outlawed cellphone use for schoolchildren under the age of 15. In China, phones were banned country-wide for schoolchildren last year.

Supporters of these initiatives have cited links between smartphone use and bullying and social isolation and the need to keep students focused on schoolwork.

77% Of U.S. schools moved to ban cellphones for nonacademic purposes as of 2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics

But some Harvard experts say instructors and administrators should consider learning how to teach with tech instead of against it, in part because so many students are still coping with academic and social disruptions caused by the pandemic. At home, many young people were free to choose how and when to use their phones during learning hours. Now, they face a school environment seeking to take away their main source of connection.

“Returning back to in-person, I think it was hard to break the habit,” said Victor Pereira, a lecturer on education and co-chair of the Teaching and Teaching Leadership Program at the Graduate School of Education.

Through their students, he and others with experience both in the classroom and in clinical settings have seen interactions with technology blossom into important social connections that defy a one-size-fits-all mindset. “Schools have been coming back, trying to figure out, how do we readjust our expectations?” Pereira added.

It’s a hard question, especially in the face of research suggesting that the mere presence of a smartphone can undercut learning .

Michael Rich , an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and an associate professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says that phones and school don’t mix: Students can’t meaningfully absorb information while also texting, scrolling, or watching YouTube videos.

“The human brain is incapable of thinking more than one thing at a time,” he said. “And so what we think of as multitasking is actually rapid-switch-tasking. And the problem with that is that switch-tasking may cover a lot of ground in terms of different subjects, but it doesn’t go deeply into any of them.”

Pereira’s approach is to step back — and to ask whether a student who can’t resist the phone is a signal that the teacher needs to work harder on making a connection. “Two things I try to share with my new teachers are, one, why is that student on the phone? What’s triggering getting on your cell phone versus jumping into our class discussion, or whatever it may be? And then that leads to the second part, which is essentially classroom management.

“Design better learning activities, design learning activities where you consider how all of your students might want to engage and what their interests are,” he said. He added that allowing phones to be accessible can enrich lessons and provide opportunities to use technology for school-related purposes.

Mesfin Awoke Bekalu, a research scientist in the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Chan School, argues that more flexible classroom policies can create opportunities for teaching tech-literacy and self-regulation.

“There is a huge, growing body of literature showing that social media platforms are particularly helpful for people who need resources or who need support of some kind, beyond their proximate environment,” he said. A study he co-authored by Rachel McCloud and Vish Viswanath for the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness shows that this is especially true for marginalized groups such as students of color and LGBTQ students. But the findings do not support a free-rein policy, Bekalu stressed.

In the end, Rich, who noted the particular challenges faced by his patients with attention-deficit disorders and other neurological conditions, favors a classroom-by-classroom strategy. “It can be managed in a very local way,” he said, adding: “It’s important for parents, teachers, and the kids to remember what they are doing at any point in time and focus on that. It’s really only in mono-tasking that we do very well at things.”

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Cell Phones in School: An Argumentative Perspective

Table of contents, benefits of cell phones in school, drawbacks of cell phones in school, balancing benefits and drawbacks.

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To Ban or Not to Ban? Educators, Parents, and Students Weigh In on Cellphones

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One reason policing cellphones in schools is so challenging is because of stakeholders’ varying opinions on their presence in the classroom, along with different views on how the problem should be dealt with—if at all.

Simultaneously taking into account the interests of students, parents, and teachers in crafting cellphone policies has proven to be a challenge. For example, while teachers may want the constant distractions of cellphones—and the hundreds of notifications they deliver each day —removed, parents may desire the security of reaching their children at any time.

Various educators have outwardly opposed the use of cellphones in classrooms, citing students’ inability to remain focused while having access to their devices. Yet educators are still divided on banning cellphones in the classroom altogether.

Education Week has spoken with many school community members, from superintendents to students, to hear their points of view. Here, we share some of the major themes that have emerged from their comments and thoughts—from Education Week reporting and recent surveys from the EdWeek Research Center.

Teachers find cellphones a major classroom distraction

According to an October 2023 EdWeek Research Center survey , 24 percent of teachers thought cellphones should be banned from school campuses altogether. The growing push to restrict cellphones at school has come amid increasing concerns about and studies pointing to children’s deteriorating mental health in connection to smartphone and social media use .

Kelly Chevalier, a science teacher at Crown Point High School in northwest Indiana, told Education Week in April that her students are constantly on their phones —be it for messaging their friends, Googling information, or just playing games—describing their use as “an addiction.”

The idea of being without their phone for three hours—it literally causes some of them physiological anxiety.

As part of that October survey by the EdWeek Research Center, over 200 educators used an open-ended question to vent about their growing concerns over cellphones.

Some compared students’ use of cellphones to an addiction or described circumstances in which students became panicked over having their cellphones taken from them .

It’s impossible as a teacher to compete with the allure and addiction to the cellphone. It’s constantly alerting them, pinging, chiming, and crying for their attention.

Administrators agree banning phones on campus, some concerned with social media’s impact on student well-being

According to the EdWeek Research Center’s survey, 21 percent of principals agreed that cellphones should be banned on campus, as well as 14 percent of district leaders.

A 2022 Nature Communications study of over 17,000 teenagers and young adults suggests middle school students, in particular, are more vulnerable to the negative effects of social media.

Students have made their voices heard on the negative impacts of social media, from worsening grades to cyberbullying . Charles Longshore, assistant principal of Dothan Preparatory Academy in Dothan, Ala., has seen it firsthand with his 7th and 8th grade students.

Longshore blames cellphones for “seriously undermining” the climate of his school, causing him to spend more of his time dealing with phone-related disciplinary referrals and arguments. As a result, Longshore supports barring students from cellphone use during school hours.

Our population being in that rough transitional phase in their lives in general, what their minds are going through, their bodies are going through, socially what they are going through, [cellphones] were the ultimate distraction.

The school’s ban on cellphones stemmed from the serious distractions they presented for students in the classroom and on campus.

Social media is an important aspect of the cellphone use debate largely because, according to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey , 58 percent of teens ages 13-17 use TikTok daily, and around 50 percent use Snapchat and Instagram daily. As Dothan, Ala. administrators have seen , social media has become a source of public embarrassment and bullying among students.

In fact, a 2024 EdWeek Research Center survey found that 92 percent of educators believe social media has a somewhat negative to very negative impact on how students treat others in real life.

Students and parents weigh in on cellphone and social media bans

While many educators openly oppose students’ use of cellphones at school, some parents and students believe avoiding or restricting cellphone use may actually hurt students’ emotional and academic development.

Ava Havidic, a recent graduate of Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy in Tamarac, Fla., and a student facilitator for the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ Student Leadership Network on Mental Health, believes preparing students for the future does not require banning their use of cellphones and social media.

Whether we put bans on social media, it's just going to make it harder for them to face those challenges in the future. For example, if they don't have access to [phones] in class, what about in college when they have the freedom to do that?

Trent Bowers, superintendent of the Worthington district in the Columbus, Ohio, metro area is a father of three and believes teachers and parents should have more engagement in crafting new policies. But he does agree with the positive implications of a cellphone ban.

As a dad of three daughters, one still in high school, I see real pluses and minuses for the time they spend on phones. Speaking as a dad, I wouldn't have minded for them not to have the ability to be on phones for six or seven hours a day because it would've just given them a break from that.

Some teachers and experts believe in a more balanced approach to cellphone bans

With rising phone ownership among students ages 8-18, some teachers don’t believe in challenging the use of cellphones in school.

Nicole Clemens, an English teacher at a central Missouri high school, believes educators need to come to terms with coexisting with phones. While Clemens teaches at the same high school her daughter went to in June 2022, she still finds it comforting to be able to reach her through a text.

There are so many teachers who are anti-cellphone, and I just think that that ship has sailed. You don’t have to like them, but you do have to figure out how to coexist with them.

Clemens believes students should be taught the importance of using their devices responsibly , instead of having them completely taken away.

According to research by Common Sense Media , 43 percent of children ages 8-12, and 88-95 percent of teenagers age 13-18 own a smartphone. In fact, about half of children in the United States own a smartphone by the time they are 11.

Dr. Michael Rich, a pediatrician and the director of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital, is concerned with cellphones being too much of a distraction, but believes schools should avoid banning them, as such a move can feel “threatening to parents” who want to be in contact with their children during school hours.

They’re building their own society. If you have Mom or Dad in your head all day long, [adolescents] never get to learn or practice taking care of themselves or being themselves in that environment.

Rich suggests a cellphone-free environment for students, without the restrictions of a ban, which could spark resistance from parents.

David Yeager, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin, believes the struggle between educators and students over cellphones is making the problem worse. He said it’s important for educators to understand why cellphones and social media are so alluring to the adolescent brain.

If adults learn to see teenagers’ phone use in a more compassionate way, that our entire economy has squeezed this huge source of information about their social well-being into this tiny device, it’s totally reasonable for them to pay attention to that device.

Yeager also believes a ban is unnecessary and that “empathy from educators can go a long way,” given the idea that cellphone use is constantly seen as a sign of defiance or a student’s lack of impulse control .

A Colorado high school lifted its ban on cellphones and has decided to incorporate the devices into instruction. Chris Page, principal of Highlands Ranch High School in Highlands Ranch, Colo., feels cellphones present useful educational opportunities for students and educators.

There are 100,000 ways that kids use their cellphones and the other half of this is that it’s hard to tell a kid not to use their cellphone when the adult in front of them has to use theirs. We decided we just weren’t going to fight that fight anymore.

While Page encourages the students’ use of cellphones in the classroom, teachers create their own rules regarding their use. Page believes it’s his school’s responsibility to teach students how to manage their cellphone use to prepare them for college and work.

Vanessa Solis, Associate Design Director contributed to this article.

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Student Opinion

Should Schools Ban Cellphones?

Rules restricting when students can use phones are on the rise. Do they work? Are they fair?

By Jeremy Engle

Nearly one in four countries has laws or policies banning or restricting student cellphone use in schools .

Proponents say the smartphone crackdowns reduce classroom distractions by preventing students from scrolling through social media and sending bullying text messages.

Critics believe the bans could limit students’ opportunities to develop personal responsibility and warn that enforcing restrictions could increase harsh disciplinary measures like school suspensions.

What do you think?

How would you and your peers react to a cellphone ban in your school? Could a no-phone rule work? Would it be fair? Would you welcome or oppose it? Or, perhaps, does your school already have a ban?

In “ This Florida School District Banned Cellphones. Here’s What Happened ,” Natasha Singer writes that in the wake of Orlando’s new policy, which bars students from using cellphones during the entire school day, student engagement increased, but so did the hunt for contraband phones:

One afternoon last month, hundreds of students at Timber Creek High School in Orlando poured into the campus’s sprawling central courtyard to hang out and eat lunch. For members of an extremely online generation, their activities were decidedly analog. Dozens sat in small groups, animatedly talking with one another. Others played pickleball on makeshift lunchtime courts. There was not a cellphone in sight — and that was no accident. In May, Florida passed a law requiring public school districts to impose rules barring student cellphone use during class time. This fall, Orange County Public Schools — which includes Timber Creek High — went even further, barring students from using cellphones during the entire school day. In interviews, a dozen Orange County parents and students all said they supported the no-phone rules during class. But they objected to their district’s stricter, daylong ban. Parents said their children should be able to contact them directly during free periods, while students described the all-day ban as unfair and infantilizing. “They expect us to take responsibility for our own choices, ” said Sophia Ferrara, a 12th grader at Timber Creek who needs to use mobile devices during free periods to take online college classes. “But then they are taking away the ability for us to make a choice and to learn responsibility.” Like many exasperated parents, public schools across the United States are adopting increasingly drastic measures to try to pry young people away from their cellphones. Tougher constraints are needed, lawmakers and district leaders argue, because rampant social media use during school is threatening students’ education, well-being and physical safety.

Ms. Singer discusses some of the benefits of a phone-free environment:

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Banning mobile phones in schools: beneficial or risky? Here’s what the evidence says

Distinguished Research Professor, Monash University

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Neil Selwyn receives research funding from the Australian Research Council, Australian Government Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT), Australian Communications Consumer Action Network & AuDA Foundation.

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Victorian education minister James Merlino’s announcement mobile phones will be banned for all students at state primary and secondary schools is certainly a bold move.

The policy has been justified as a direct response to mounting levels of cyberbullying, concerns over distractions and schools struggling with discipline relating to students’ misuse of phones.

Students will have to switch off their phones and store them in lockers from the start of the school day until the final bell. In case of an emergency, parents or guardians can reach their child by calling the school.

The minister said in a statement :

The only exceptions to the ban will be where students use phones to monitor health conditions, or where teachers instruct students to bring their phone for a particular classroom activity.

Whether to allow student use of mobile phones in school is certainly a hot topic in education. The Victorian announcement follows a French government ban on mobiles in school in 2018. Debates on the issue are also taking place in Denmark , Sweden and the United Kingdom .

There is considerable public support for banning mobiles. In our recently conducted survey of more than 2,000 Australian adults, nearly 80% supported a ban on mobile phones in classrooms. Just under one-third supported an outright ban from schools altogether.

Support for a classroom ban was remarkably consistent across different demographics, including political affiliation and age group.

But while banning phones from classrooms, and from school altogether, might seem sensible, there are number of reasons to be cautious. It’s clear we need to carefully consider how we want to make use of digital devices being brought into schools. But previous experience, such as in New York, suggests a blanket ban might introduce even more problems.

And the little research evidence that addresses the issue is mixed.

What’s the evidence?

Reports of cyberbullying have clearly gone up among school-aged children and young people over the past ten years, but the nature and precedents of cyberbullying are complex.

Research suggests there is a large overlap between cyberbullying and traditional forms of bullying, which wouldn’t then follow that digital devices are somehow causing these behaviours.

Cyberbullying also often takes place outside school hours and premises. There is a danger banning phones from classrooms might distract education staff from having to continue with efforts to address the more immediate causes of cyberbullying.

Read more: Teenagers need our support, not criticism, as they navigate life online

There is also a growing literature exploring the links between digital devices and classroom distractions. The presence of phones in the classroom is certainly found to be a source of multi-tasking among students of all ages – some of which can be educationally relevant and much of which might not.

But the impact of these off-task behaviours on student learning outcomes is difficult to determine. A review of 132 academic studies concluded, it is

difficult to determine directions and mechanisms of the causal relations between mobile phone multitasking and academic performance.

There is also a strong sense from classroom research that issues of distraction apply equally to laptops , iPads and other digital devices.

All told, the sense from academic literature is that the realities of smartphone use in classrooms are complex and decidedly messy. Our own research into how smartphones are being used in Victorian classrooms highlighted the difficulties teachers face in policing student use (what some teachers described as requiring “five minutes of firefighting” at the beginning of every lesson).

Despite this, we also found instances of students using smartphones for a range of beneficial purposes – from impromptu information seeking to live-streaming lessons for sick classmates.

Read more: Schools are asking students to bring digital devices to class, but are they actually being used?

These benefits are also reflected in classroom studies elsewhere in the world. Research from Stanford University has demonstrated , for instance, that with proper support and preparation, teachers in even the most challenging schools can “build on the ways students already use technology outside of school to help them learn in the classroom”.

There is now a whole academic field known as “ m-Learning ” where researchers have explored the pedagogical and learning advantages of using mobile devices (including phones) in lessons.

But what about a blanket ban from school altogether? Experience from elsewhere suggests enforcing a mobile ban in schools may not be as easy as it sounds.

What we can learn from others

The New South Wales government announced a review into the benefits and risks of mobile phone use in schools in June 2018, led by child psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg. At the review’s completion, the government said it would only ban mobile phones from the state’s primary schools, leaving secondary schools free to make their own choice.

We recognise that technology plays an important and increasing role as students progress through their education […] We want to give secondary schools the flexibility to balance the benefits and risks of technology in the way that best supports their students.

Perhaps the most pertinent example is the ban enforced in New York City from 2006, that was eventually lifted in 2015.

The reasons given for this reversal highlighted several of the concerns the new ban in Victoria will likely face. They include practical difficulties of enforcing a ban in the classroom being exacerbated by banning of phone use during break times and lunchtimes.

First, it was clear the New York ban was being inconsistently enforced by schools – with better resourced schools in more affluent areas more likely to bend the rules and permit student use. In contrast, schools in lower-income areas with metal detectors were more likely to be rigidly enforcing the ban.

Other motivations for lifting the ban were concerns over student safety such as the need for students to contact family members during break times and lunchtimes. Families were also incurring costs to store phones securely outside of the school. There was also a recognition teachers should be trusted to exercise their professional judgement as to how they could be making good educational use of devices in their lessons.

Read more: Should mobile phones be banned in schools? We asked five experts

At the same time, it was reckoned government resources were better directed toward supporting students to learn how to use technology responsibly through cyber-safety lessons.

All these reasons are as relevant now to Victorian schools as they were to New York City schools in 2015. The use (and non-use) of mobile phones in schools is certainly an issue we need to have a proper conversation about. But it might not be as clear-cut as the recent policy announcements suggest.

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