Is a phone ban in schools the way to protect children?

In the first of a series of Observer debates, Damian McBeath, principal at John Wallis Academy in Ashford, discusses pupils' phone use with Dr Robert Harrison, director of education and integrated technology at ACS International Schools

- Damian McBeath, principal at John Wallis Academy in Ashford, discusses pupils’ phone use with Dr Robert Harrison, director of education and integrated technology at ACS International Schools

Damian McBeath I'm sure we agree that schools exist to help children flourish - but where do smartphones fit into all of this? Is there any evidence that bringing a smartphone into school improves a child’s focus, confidence, safety, sense of identity? The answer is a firm no. More than 90% of schools in England have implemented bans - including more than 99% of primary schools. The Department for Education (DfE) and Ofsted back a ban and 70% of parents in the UK agree. Many districts in the US are choosing to become phone-free, Ireland is banning phones from schools, Australia already has. My school banned them more than a year ago and the impact has been transformational. Last weekend 59% of teachers at the NASUWT conference stated that behaviour had deteriorated because of social media. The London School of Economics found that banning smartphones improves test scores. Robert, I am intrigued to hear why you think a ban is not an appropriate response...

Dr Robert Harrison I suspect we agree on the potential danger of mobile technologies and social media for young people, and that all schools should be positive learning environments, free from distraction and focused on the academic and personal development of young people. Our schools absolutely limit students’ use of mobile phones during the school day, collaborating with parents and students to ensure a positive learning environment. But I think this debate has taken on some of the characteristics of a moral panic. People like Jonathan Haidt [the American social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation] have helped to create a bugbear of smartphones and social media, and there’s no good evidence that there’s any cause-and-effect relationship between smartphone ownership, social media usage and adolescent mental health.