Labour rules out smartphone ban in schools
Labour has no plans to ban smartphones in schools despite similar restrictions being rolled out worldwide and pleas from parents for tougher rules, The Telegraph understands.
The last Tory government issued guidance backing headteachers in restricting access to phones in schools but also stopped short of binding rules.
“The Government can legislate to ban mobile phones [in schools] and it is an option,” a spokesman for the Department for Education said.
According to Ipsos polling, almost two thirds of people in Britain (60 per cent) think smartphones should be banned in schools, above the global average of 53 per cent.
Labour’s election manifesto said: “Children and young people face significant harm online, with inappropriate content too easily available at their fingertips on a smartphone.”
But The Telegraph understands that, as things stand Labour will leave matters to schools.
Starmer rules out ban
Sir Keir Starmer has ruled out a ban on the sale of smartphones to the under 16s in the UK, despite fears over cyberbullying and concentration levels.
Sarah, a mother from south-east England, told The Telegraph her 16-year-old daughter tried to take her own life several times after being cyber-bullied on platforms such as WhatsApp and Snapchat.
“My daughter is still alive, I’m very lucky,” she said.
Sarah, whose surname we are not publishing, said her daughter had found tips on self harm online.
“If I could do one thing, I would never give my daughter a smartphone,” said Sarah, who gave the device to her daughter when she was in Year Six.
She called on the Prime Minister to ban smartphones for anyone under the age of 14, stating a ban in schools did not go far enough.
“The damage is occurring outside of schools, there are group chats that continue outside of the school gates and the schools cannot do anything or are unaware of the networks that have been formed,” she said.
“It’s not just me, there’s an entire cohort tearing their hair out over struggling with children. Entire summers spent on smartphones or kids who are terrified to go out because of bullying,” she added.
Some British schools have pressed ahead with bans, without waiting for government regulation.
Ormiston Academies Trust banned smartphones at the start of this school year in a move that affected 35,000 pupils and had support from parents.
Ormiston Chadwick Academy in Runcorn adopted a locked-box solution at the start of this term, prohibiting phone use for students unless they had a medical need.
Since then, students, especially older girls,say they are no longer “held hostage by their phone”. One English teacher said the Year 11 group is the most focused they have seen.
At Cowes Enterprise Academy on the Isle of Wight and at Cliff Park Ormiston Academy in Norfolk both schools are trialling pouch options. Phones are placed in individual pouches at the start of the day, the pouch is secured by a magnet, then kept in students’ bags until the magnet is released at the end of the day, similar to how shops remove security tags from clothes at the till.
Velcro options are available for those students who need to be able to release their phone quickly, such as for medical reasons.
‘Urgent concerns on mental health’
On Wednesday, a World Health Organisation report revealed “urgent concerns about the impact of digital technology on the mental health and well-being of Europe’s youth”.
The report stated more than one in 10 teenagers showed signs of problematic social media behaviour, including a failure to control how much they use the technology.
Girls were more likely to report higher levels of problematic behaviour, according to the research, which surveyed almost 280,000 young people under 16 across 44 countries and regions in Europe, Central Asia and Canada in 2022.
Last year, the United Nations published a damning report calling for smartphones to be banned from schools in an effort to curb online bullying and class disruption.
At the start of this school year, a string of countries rolled out new smartphone restrictions or expanded existing regulations.
How the world is trying to ban smartphones
Ireland
Irish doctors have called for an outright ban on smartphone sales to the under 16s, declaring them to be part of a “public health emergency”.
Norma Foley, the education minister, has begun plans to ban phones in all secondary schools because of the “the harmful consequences of social media are experienced by schoolchildren on a daily basis”.
If the law is approved, all students up to the age of 18 will be prevented from accessing their phones in school breaks.
Scandinavia
The initial policy of Finland, the home of Nokia, was to try to teach children how to deal with social media and distinguish fake from real news.
But there has been a stark change in attitudes after officials blamed a drop in Finnish exam results on technological distractions.
Now the government is on track to introduce a nationwide bill to ban mobile phones in schools after the cities of Helsinki and Tampere introduced their own bans.
Sweden is developing legislation to ban digital devices in schools until pupils reach 15 after health authorities said screen time for teenagers should be limited to three hours a day.
France
In July, France passed a law refusing children under 15 access to social media unless they have parental permission.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has likened granting unsupervised internet access to the young to “opening the door to the jungle”, amid fears they could be targeted by scammers.
An expert panel set up by the French president said that children under 11 should be barred from having a cellphone while the use of smartphones without internet access should be prohibited for anybody under the age of 13.
The panel has called for an outright social media ban, regardless of parental consent, for anyone under 15.
Earlier this month, about 200 French middle schools, teaching pupils aged 11-14, banned mobile phones completely.
If the trial period proves successful, it will be rolled out nationwide from January 2025.
Rest of Europe
Italy enacted a sweeping ban on the use of smartphones in educational institutions, including for academic purposes, for the 2024/25 year. Tablets and computers may be used under teacher guidance.
“I do not believe that good teaching is done with a cell phone,” Giuseppe Validatara, the education minister, said at a conference in July.
Spain banned smartphones from elementary schools in January with secondary school students only allowed access with a teacher’s approval.
The Netherlands also implemented a ban on phones, tablets and smartwatches in classrooms from January 1 this year.
In Belgium, French-speaking Wallonia banned smartphones in schools, as did the federal region of Brussels.
Germany has begun trialling phone bans in school in anticipation of potentially passing legislation but the idea has divided the country’s politicians.
Australia
Smartphones were banned in South Australian schools in October 2023.
Since then, there has been a 63 per cent drop in “critical incidents involving social media” in the first half of this year in comparison to the same period twelve months earlier.
There was also a 54 per cent drop in behavioural issues and 10 per cent fewer violent incidents.
Anthony Albanese, the prime minister, announced earlier this month he wanted to ban children under 16 from using social media and use age verification technology to enforce the policy and stop children using sites such as TikTok.
China
China is the largest smartphone producer in the world but has strict rules to protect children from the devices.
The Ministry of Education banned the use of phones in school without explicit parental permission in 2021. It claims the ban protects eyesight and fights internet addiction.
China also restricts the use of devices outside of school. Since last year, children under eight are allowed a maximum of 40 minutes of smartphone use outside of school per day, while those aged eight to 16 are limited to one hour.
Teenagers aged 16 and 17 can use smartphones for up to two hours daily. These measures are part of a broader strategy to reduce technology addiction among minors but parents can bypass these measures.
North America
Canadian schools are suing social media giants for billions of dollars because of the impact the companies have had on children.
Four major Ontario school boards announced in April they would sue the firms Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok for $4.5 billion due to the “massive financial strains” in dealing with cyberbullying, mental health problems and distraction stemming from social media.
Meta, Snapchat, and Titktok have defended themselves in statements to the press. Meta says it works with users and parents to support vulnerable teenagers, Snapchat said its service was based on direct communication among friends, and Tiktok said its guidelines were constantly updated by a team of safety professionals.
The provinces of Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan introduced smartphone bans for the first time this academic year.
Others have rolled out a tiered system based on age. Sixth-grade students and those younger have no access to smartphones throughout the day while the older pupils can only use their devices during breaks.
Senators in the USA have attempted to introduce the Kids Off Social Media Act, comparable to the UK’s Online Safety Act, although it is yet to be approved.
The federal government has not passed any nationwide legislation but California has recently passed two laws.
The first prevents social media from sending addictive algorithmic feeds to children without parental consent and prevents social media from contacting them during school hours and at night while they are asleep. The second law will prevent students from using their phones at school except in emergencies.