A growing number of states are considering legislation to ban or restrict cellphones in schools, part of an effort to remove classroom distractions for students as concerns rise about their mental health.
Lawmakers in Alabama, Maryland and New Hampshire last week announced bills to restrict cellphone use during school hours as state legislatures convene around the country in the new year. They join legislators in 11 other states who have introduced bills targeting restrictions as of December, according to the health policy research group KFF.
“Screens are negatively impacting our learning environments, drawing students’ attention away from their classes, and becoming a barrier for teachers to do their jobs. No more,” New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, said in her inaugural address last week, announcing her support for such legislation.
In addition to Alabama, New Hampshire and Maryland, other states’ education departments have advised or piloted restrictions, too. Alabama’s proposed legislation suggests fining students for violating the policy.
If those states were to enact the new legislation, they would join eight others — California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia — that have banned or restricted cellphones in public schools statewide.
The new wave of legislation comes as a growing body of research suggests that teens are using their phones to aggressively consume social media, which studies find is linked to anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction and eating disorders.
A 2023 Gallup study found that 51% of American teenagers were using social media at least four hours a day.
Lawmakers in some states have gone even further, proposing bans on social media for children under 16, as Australia did last year. Indiana lawmakers are considering a similar bill, while Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Miss., in 2023 proposed federal legislation to create a legal age to be allowed on social media; it died in committee.
Proponents of the restrictions on cellphone use in schools — some of which enjoy bipartisan support — say they’ll help students focus on their coursework, and not the group chat, during class.
But some parents say access to cellphones is a public safety issue.
Jeara Underwood, a 45-year-old single mom, said she’d pull her four kids out of Colorado public schools if they can’t use their cellphones.
While there isn’t a statewide policy in Colorado, some districts have restricted cellphone use. Her children aren’t supposed to have phones at school, but keep them in their bags.
“If something were to happen in the school, my child should be able to have their cellphone to be able to call for help, to be able to call me,” Underwood said.
Mary Alvord, a psychologist who works with teens as a clinician and with the American Psychological Association on crafting healthy technology-use recommendations, said broad bans create new disciplinary issues and ignore the omnipresence of technology — like students’ access to laptops in the classroom.
Teaching teens to have a healthy relationship with technology and social media is the goal, she argued, not simply keeping them off a mobile device until the school bell rings.
“It’s just like banning books. You’re missing out on a lot of good literature if you don’t actually teach media literacy,” she said. “If you legislative something, it takes a long time to change the legislation, and this whole area of technology moves faster than the legislators.”
And while such bans may reduce bullying and help students focus on staying off their phones during class, Alvord said it’s more important and useful for teens learn how to use their phones responsibly.
“I do think there need to be some boundaries,” she said. “But legal restrictions take it to another level.”
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