With WhatsApp now allowing children as young as 13 to access the app, and a renewed debate about the suitability of mobile phones for teens, now is the time to prevent children from using phones in schools.
Since January 2024, the European Azerbaijani School, which I currently chair, has required students to put their mobile phones into locked pouches during school time. These new measures have ensured that their time at school is fully devoted to a focused, enriching and rewarding education.
It’s now time for the UK government to follow suit, and that means going further than the guidance on mobile phone use published last month. Ofsted needs to mandate measures which will not only improve educational outcomes, but also decrease the risk of online harms and cyberbullying in school. After all, students are in school to learn, not to scroll through social media.
Mobile devices and the services they provide are ubiquitous. Recent Ofcom research indicates that a fifth of all UK children aged 3-4 years have their own mobile phone, and parents can find it difficult to distinguish between beneficial screen time, such as word learning apps, and the darker side of the internet which can damage their children’s mental health. This is crucial at school, which not only provides an education, but acts as the primary means of socialisation for young people before entering the world of work. Children need real world social interaction rather than likes and algorithms, and their real play and learning can be inhibited by an over-reliance on the digital world.
It’s not just missing out on the real world which can be a problem. A staggering amount of research has been conducted on the potential dangers for children that lurk in the online world. By limiting screen time at school, schools should hope to not only limit children’s exposure to content which can negatively impact them or the potential for bullying other students via social media, but also foster healthier habits outside school by allowing them to break a cycle of dependence on screens.
At the European Azerbaijani School, we found that requiring our students to keep their phones inside their lockers was not enough, and often students would take out their phones during break times as well which disrupted their social interactions. This demonstrated the need for firm action to ensure that children’s break periods were not dominated by a need to satisfy a craving for online interaction, but instead that students fully interact with their peers. In one fell swoop, we could tackle the plague of cyberbullying and the loss of real-life interaction and protect the development of invaluable emotional and social skills.
For students and parents who may be concerned that a lack of access to mobile devices could impact their ability to communicate with each other, students should always be able to reach their parents and guardians by speaking with their teachers or other school staff, and students’ phones will always be returned to them at the end of each school day. This way, they will never be outside school grounds without the ability to contact their guardian.
This policy is about focusing students’ attention inside the classroom, not policing their lives in the wider world. Parents should feel secure that staff are fully invested in the children’s safety and that the healthy habits created at school will then lead to a reduced dependence on screens at home and a healthier family life as a result. Devices can be used for educational purposes, but in general they are not, and technological tools are already used by teachers who are more responsible and better equipped to harness the power of the internet in the classroom.
The Government must be bold in protecting children from online harms, or risk causing further damage to the next generation. We must set a new standard for education across the country and properly prepare our children for the future.
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