What’s driving phone bans in schools?

Vidal: Smartphone and social media addictions are not yet formal disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, so diagnosis is tricky. But the key is to pay attention to whether it affects functioning in daily life. If kids or teens are neglecting their studies or responsibilities, or if they’re going to sleep late or not eating, and the family hasn’t been able to help the child moderate their use, then those may be signs to seek help by reaching out to a school counselor or psychologist. With screen addictions like video gaming, for example, some kids will forgo eating and spend all night playing games. I’ve seen this behavior in some of my patients. Other signs that warrant attention are spending less time outdoors, and to a certain extent, isolating from the world.

Ultimately, it’s critical for all of us—health care providers, educators, parents and other family members, and friends—to encourage a balance of moderate screen and social media use, outdoor activity, and exercise in today’s digital age. Restricting cell phone use in schools is a step in the right direction and an opportunity for children and adolescents to learn to engage with the world in a different way. When someone attempts to quit alcohol or other addictive substances, the first thing they do is empty their home of says substance. The key with screen addictions, I believe, is moderation, and the best way to achieve this is by restricting access to smartphones in certain environments, at least temporarily, so students are not constantly tempted to use it when bored or anxious, and so they can engage more fully with schoolwork, school staff, and the classmates around them.

Anderson: Many kids today are stressed and disconnected. That’s why vaping and opioid use are on the rise, and educators need tools to talk about these and other issues in ways that encourage kids to listen. This is the goal of the Johns Hopkins Health Education and Training (HEAT) Corps, a program in the School of Education for which I serve as the curriculum director. With the HEAT Corps, we equip teachers with the awareness and resources they need to understand the many challenges students face today, from long COVID and gun violence to e-cigarettes, cyberbullying, and social media.

I think it’s essential—and part of the HEAT Corps’ mission—to help young people become self-advocates around cell phone use. As a culture, we’ve gone from having television go off at 11 o’clock at night—when a flag would appear on-screen, and you’d hear a song and know it’s time for bed—to 24-hour programming. We’ve fundamentally shifted our access to entertainment without implementing the necessary education. Now, we want everything on demand, not just our entertainment but also our deliveries and even our education. We expect things to happen instantaneously, and our capacity to attend to any one topic for more than a few minutes has severely diminished.

The main challenge with schools taking cell phones away is that families have a diminished capacity to immediately contact their child. If you look at social media in the wake of the recent school shooting in Georgia, you’ll see parents expressing panic over the school cell phone bans. They don’t want their kids to give up their cell phones.

One solution is to develop a device that functions only as a telephone. Another option is to integrate software in schools that disarms apps but still lets kids contact their caregivers. With the current strategy of locking phones in storage pouches, bookbags, or lockers, the jury is out on whether that will work—and whether kids who want to use their phones will bypass the rules and find a work-around. That’s why education and awareness are critical in helping kids become self-advocates. As adults, they’ll have endless digital content available at their fingertips. The time to teach them healthy behaviors and boundary-setting is now.