UK Considers New Smartphone Bans for Children

We know surprisingly little about the impact of smartphone bans in schools, says Sonia Livingstone, a professor at the London School of Economics who studies how digital technologies affect young people..

There is just about enough evidence to suggest that preventing children from accessing their phones improves concentration, says Livingstone, but its much harder to say that banning phones leads to less bullying or more play..

The research is just really insufficient for that, she says.. Separating out how specific issues like bullying, mental health, sleep time, exercise, and concentration are impacted by smartphones is extremely tricky, says Livingstone..

Rather than focusing on bans, legislators should think more about how to teach children to have healthier relationships with technology and hold tech companies to account, says Pete Etchells, a professor at Bath Spa University and author of Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time..

We need to think about how we design [digital technologies] better, and support people in understanding how to use them, he says.. And getting there, according to Etchells, means moving past simplistic narratives like assuming that restricting screen time will lead to more outdoor play..

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