Outright smartphone bans in schools are likely to be ineffective and undermine students’ trust without addressing core issues like harmful online content, cyberbullying and addictive platform design, a new report finds.
The study found a consensus across students, parents and teachers recognising the distraction and disruption smartphones can cause in the classroom, but disagreement over how it should be addressed. It concluded that outright bans do not have young people’s buy-in, and rushed, non-consultative policies can have unintended negative consequences, including new safeguarding concerns, like safety while travelling alone, and a reduction in reporting online harms, due to an erosion of trust between young people and adults.
Published today, Tuesday 30th June, the UCL report follows the recent announcement of a social media ban for all under-16s by the UK government, to be introduced in early 2027.
For the study, academics at the UCL Institute of Education, along with Life Lessons Education, captured the perspectives of 732 secondary school students, 27 educators and 41 parents through questionnaires, focus groups and arts-based methodologies for a report into school smartphone The report found that smartphone bans in schools divide generations; they are popular among adults, with 87% of teachers and 88% of parents polled supportive, but are perceived as overly punitive among students, with 75% disagreeing with the policy.
Adults reported being highly anxious about students’ smartphone use, viewing it as an existential threat, despite often using the devices themselves.
Students emphasised how their smartphones, with bus timetables, weather forecasts and homework apps, are essential tools, embedded into day-to-day life. Students explained how their smartphones give them direct access to support networks, and girls in particular said their smartphones help them feel safer when traveling alone.
Lead Author Professor Jessica Ringrose (UCL Institute of Education) said:
“The students we spoke to perceived blanket bans as punitive, rather than supportive. They felt bans undermined trust between them and the adults in their lives, who they felt misunderstood the integral role phones play in their day-to-day routine.”
Co-author, Edith Rodda, a PhD candidate at UCL Institute of Education, added:
“Rushed school smartphone policies that don’t consider students’ perspectives, however well-intentioned, risk creating a cycle of punishment that ultimately undermines the policy’s aims. Students inevitably find workarounds, like breaking open lockable phone pouches.”
The report suggests that smartphone bans can create a ‘displacement effect’, whereby the visibility of digital issues like cyberbullying and technology-facilitated sexual harassment are reduced, with students explaining they felt less able to report online harms at school. But the root causes of these behaviours and the harmful platforms and content continue, it adds. This displacement can exacerbate existing problems by intensifying home-based screen time, and eroded trust can make young people less likely to report online harms.
Digital technology is now an unavoidable part of adult life, but students felt blanket smartphone bans denied them the opportunities to practice self-regulation and develop responsible technology skills, including the informed use of AI.
