Scientists have discovered whether banning phone use in school helps improve children’s academic performance. Science and technology September 08, 2024, 14:15.

A Siena College poll of likely voters in New York State conducted between late July and early August found that 60% of respondents support a school phone ban, with support evenly spread across the political spectrum.

Scientists are still debating whether such restrictions help kids improve their grades. According to Yondr, a company that makes special cases that some American students use to store their phones at the beginning of the day, 83% of schools using the products report improved student engagement. Children’s behavior and academic performance also improved, though to a lesser extent.

Some schools are said to have seen a decrease in bullying since they started using Yondr events, with students not insulting each other on social media as often as before.

Louis-Philippe Bélande, an assistant professor of economics at Carleton University in Ontario and co-author of one of the first papers on the academic impact of smartphone access, says anything that limits access to phones is a good thing. Studies have shown that banning cell phones in schools improves achievement, especially for students with low grades, but there is no negative impact on children with high academic performance.

Evidence in the scientific literature supports this view: phone bans help students learn better, despite some caveats. In a 2023 UNESCO report, experts noted that phones interfere with learning and that it would be lawful to ban them if the devices did not improve learning or harm children’s well-being.

But having to hide phones can rob kids of the opportunity to learn about safe and responsible technology use, says Pete Etchells, professor of psychology and science communication at Bath Spa University in England and author of Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time. So it’s important to strike a balance, such as using cases to lock down phones for most of the day and only allowing students to take their devices out at certain times.