Cellphone restrictions are now pervasive. Teachers, parents, and surprisingly students support them. But the bans have had no significant effect—positive or negative—on students’ social life or classroom experience, according to new research from the University of Southern California.
Most teens surveyed—67%—said their school’s cellphone restrictions have had no impact on “making friends,” and 44% said there were no changes in how “happy” they felt. Teens reported that the restrictions had no impact on other aspects of school life either, like attendance, their ability to pay attention in class, or their stress levels.
“The lack of downsides from a teen reporting perspective is positive,” said Anna Saavedra, a principal author on the report and the co-director of the Center for Applied Research in Education at USC. “Given their responses and the lack of perceived downsides, and what we know about the harms of cellphones for kids in school and outside, I think these results support doubling down on restrictions and making them stronger.”
The researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of nearly 400 teenagers aged 13 to 17 between September and November. Ninety-eight percent of the teenagers surveyed report that their schools have implemented cellphone restrictions—just over half attend schools with bell-to-bell bans, while 42% said they could use their phones during non-instructional periods, like lunch.
It’s unclear why students support these bans when they don’t see any positive or negative effects on their social, emotional, or academic lives, the report states. Saavedra said one possibility may be timing: The survey is based on responses from the beginning of this school year, when many bans were first implemented. An end-of-year assessment might reflect different responses from teenagers, she said.
The Pew Research Center also surveyed teens in October and found that 41% of teens support banning middle and high school students from using their smartphones during class time, but support drops significantly when it comes to banning cellphones for the entire school day.
In general, research on the effects of cellphone restrictions is still limited, but emerging results show improved student attention and better overall behavior.
Parents support bans, but need more information
Researchers also surveyed more than 1,100 adults who live with the teenagers surveyed, using the sample from the Understanding America Study Education Project, which polls both parents and K-12 students on a range of education-related topics.
For this survey, Saavedra and her team were keen to find out if parents’ attitudes toward cellphone bans had shifted. There was a “fair amount of parent pushback” toward cellphone bans a couple years ago because they wanted to reach their kids quickly in an emergency, she said.
But the subsequent years of unmitigated cellphone use in schools, coupled with research and educator reports on how much cellphones disrupt classrooms and dent student attention, seemed to changed parents’ perceptions, Saavedra said.
The survey indicated that parents and teens are largely aligned in their support for cellphone bans: 76% of teens support restrictions, while 93% of parents said the same. Additionally, over 30% of parents with teenage children believe phones should be “locked away” for the entire school day.
Parents, though, aren’t fully aware of the consequences their kids face if they break the rules, the results showed. More than 30% of parents said they “didn’t know” how their kids may be disciplined. In contrast, more than 60% of teens said they were aware that they’d be given a verbal warning if they used their phones when they weren’t supposed to, before escalating discipline.
While most parents were told about the cellphone policy from their kids’ schools—mostly over email or through the school or district website—only 27% said the school had shared information about the “harms of child and teen device use.” Most parents have either never received such information from their schools (44%) or are unsure if they did (29%).
Saavedra said this is a significant finding educators should be aware of—sharing the harms of social media and unfettered screen time could help parents enforce stricter cellphone rules at home or remind their kids about following the rules at school.
Some school and district leaders have tried to get parents on board with bans by showing them the positive effects of a “distraction-free” classroom.
Teachers are unified in implementation, but students still sneak a peek
For the most part, teachers are putting up a united front to implement cellphone bans, teens report. Only 13% of teenagers say their teachers ignore it when students pull out their phones during class. A large majority collect students’ phones before class.
The report also finds, however, that teens are still able to access their phones when they’re not supposed to. Over half of the students say they use their phones for non-academic reasons “a few times” or “often throughout the day.” Only 37% of adults, however, think their kids use their phones in school when they’re not supposed to.
Saavedra said while this finding isn’t surprising, it’s more proof that schools should keep enforcing cellphone restrictions and, whenever necessary, make that enforcement stricter.
The report recommends locking students’ phones away in lockers or pouches for the entire school day and doubling down on communication with parents about cellphone rules. “I think it could be helpful,” said Saavedra.
“If you have parents saying, ‘Did you remember to leave your phone at home?’ or ‘Make sure you leave your phone in the locker,’ they could be helping teachers out.”
