Amid growing concerns about students’ mental health, more states are considering legislation to ban or restrict cell phone use in schools as part of an effort to eliminate classroom distractions.
Lawmakers in Alabama, Maryland and New Hampshire unveiled bills last week that would restrict cell phone use during school hours as state legislatures convene across the country in the new year. As of December, they joined lawmakers in 11 other states who had introduced bills targeting the restrictions, according to the health policy research group KFF.
“Screens are negatively impacting the learning environment, distracting students from class, and disrupting teachers’ work. Not anymore,” New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican, said in her inaugural address last week. expressed support for such a bill.
In addition to Alabama, New Hampshire and Maryland, other state education departments have recommended or piloted restrictions. Alabama’s bill proposes fines for students who violate this policy.
If these states enact new laws, California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia will be among the other eight states that ban or restrict cell phone use in public schools across the state. It will join the state.
This new wave of legislation comes as teens are using cell phones to actively engage in social media, which is linked to anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction, and eating disorders. This comes amid a growing body of research suggesting that.
A 2023 Gallup poll found that 51% of American teens use social media for at least four hours a day.
Lawmakers in some states have gone further, proposing social media bans for children under 16, as Australia did last year. Indiana lawmakers are considering similar legislation, and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mississippi) has proposed federal legislation that would set a legal age for social media use in 2023. It died in committee.
Supporters of restricting cell phone use in schools, some of whom enjoy bipartisan support, argue that it allows students to focus on class rather than group chats during class. There is.
But some parents argue that cell phone access is a public safety issue.
Jera Underwood, a 45-year-old single mother, said she plans to pull her four children out of Colorado public schools if they don’t have cellphone access.
Colorado does not have a statewide policy, but some districts restrict cell phone use. Her children are not allowed to bring cell phones to school, but they do keep them in their bags.
“If something happens at school, my child needs to be able to have a cell phone and call for help or call me,” Underwood said.
Mary Alvord, a psychologist who works with teens as a clinician and works with the American Psychological Association to develop recommendations for the healthy use of technology, said the broad ban is a new disciplinary measure. He said it creates problems and ignores the ubiquity of technology, such as students’ access to laptops in the classroom.
She argued that the goal is to teach teens to have a healthy relationship with technology and social media, not just to keep them off their mobile devices until the school bell rings.
“It’s like banning books. If you don’t actually teach media literacy, you’re missing out on a lot of great literature,” she said. “When you legislate something, it takes a long time to change that law. And this whole area of technology is moving faster than the legislators.”
And while such bans may reduce bullying and help students focus on not using their phones in class, it’s important for teens to learn how to use their phones responsibly. is more important and useful, Alvord said.
“I think there needs to be some boundaries,” she said. “But legal restrictions take it to another level.”
