A growing number of states are considering legislation to ban or restrict cell phones in schools, part of an effort to eliminate distractions for students in the classroom as concerns about their mental health grow.
Lawmakers in Alabama, Maryland and New Hampshire last week announced bills to restrict cellphone use during school hours as state legislatures convene across the country in the new year. They join lawmakers in 11 other states who have introduced bills targeting restrictions starting in December, according to health policy research group KFF.
“Screens are negatively impacting our learning environments, diverting students’ attention 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, education departments in other states have also advised or piloted restrictions. Alabama’s proposed legislation suggests fining students for violating the policy.
If those states enacted the new legislation, they would join eight others (California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia) that have banned or restricted cell phones in public schools across the state.
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 show is linked to anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction and mental health disorders. food.
A 2023 Gallup study found that 51% of American teenagers used social media at least four hours a day.
Lawmakers in some states have gone even further and proposed banning social media for children under 16, as Australia did last year. Indiana lawmakers are considering a similar bill, while Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mississippi, proposed federal legislation in 2023 to create a legal age for accessing social media; died in commission.
Proponents of restrictions on cellphone use in schools (some of which have bipartisan support) say they will help students focus on their coursework, and not group chat, during class.
But some parents say cell phone access is a matter of public safety.
Jeara Underwood, a 45-year-old single mother, said she would pull her four children out of Colorado public schools if they can’t use their cell phones.
While there is no state policy in Colorado, some districts have restricted cell phone use. Your children are not supposed to have phones at school, but rather keep them in their bags.
“If something were to happen at school, my son should be able to have his cell phone so he could ask for help, so he could call me,” Underwood said.
Mary Alvord, a psychologist who works with teens as a clinician and with the American Psychological Association in developing recommendations for healthy technology use, said broad bans create new disciplinary problems and ignore the pervasiveness of technology, such as access of students to laptops in the classroom.
The goal, he argued, is to teach teens to have a healthy relationship with technology and social media, not simply keep them away from a mobile device until the school bell rings.
“It’s like banning books. “You are missing out on a lot of good literature if you don’t teach media literacy,” he said. “If you legislate something, it takes a long time to change the legislation, and this whole area of technology moves faster than legislators.”
And while such bans can reduce bullying and help students focus on not using their phones during class, Alvord said it’s more important and helpful for teens to learn how to use their phones responsibly.
“I think there needs to be some limits,” he said. “But the legal restrictions take it to another level.”
