Analysis: should Ireland introduce a ban on smartphones or should schools be left to develop their own policies?
By Megan Reynolds, Maryam Esfandiari and Sandra Sanmartín Feijóo, DCU
For years we've been asking the question: how can schools tackle the use of smartphones in classrooms? Seen as an impossible task, some schools, both primary and post-primary, have begun taking on this challenge.
A few months ago, eight primary schools in Greystones and Delgany announced that they were introducing a voluntary 'no smartphone' code, which details that parents will not buy their children a smartphone until they start post-primary school. This code was developed following concerns from teachers and parents over increasing anxiety levels among pupils and ultimately to protect them from being exposed to adult material when online.
Schools have an acceptable use policy on whether phones are allowed in schools, however this ‘no smartphone’ code marked the first time that schools in a catchment area took a joint approach in tackling this issue. Recently, primary schools across the county of Waterford also decided to collectively introduce a voluntary charter, which aims to keep pupils free from smartphones and social media.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ News, eight Wicklow schools agree a 'no smartphone' ban
This charter is known as the ‘Gen Free’ and asks parents to sign up to the charter and by doing so, parents agree to not buy a smartphone for their child nor allow them onto social media until post-primary. Every primary school in Waterford will display the charter and invite parents to not only sign up, but display it in their home. Primary schools are not the only ones who are tackling this issue, with several post-primary schools also tackling this issue by using different initiatives, for example some are using phone pouches to remove students' phones during class time.
Within society, technology is ever evolving and increasingly part of everyday life, especially for young people. The Growing Up in Ireland study found that 40% of children owned a mobile phone by the age of 9. The increase of young people owning phones has placed more pressure on schools to develop policies on mobile phone use. Consequently, it is not surprising that some countries, such as France, Netherlands, as well as regions of Canada and Australia, have banned mobile phones in schools. Whereas countries, such as the United Kingdom, United States and Ireland do not have a national ban on mobile phone use in schools, which leaves schools to individually decide whether to implement such a ban.
It is not surprising to see that schools are opting to tackle this issue now, and in some cases taking a collective approach. The government has taken notice of the different approaches that schools are taking and in July 2023, the Minister for Education announced that she was considering rolling out a mobile phone ban in primary schools nationwide.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, Waterford primary schools launch charter asking parents not to give their children smartphones
The increasing presence of smartphones in schools - especially at primary level - has sparked a debate about their impact on education and students' well-being, with the World Health Organisation warning about the public health implications of inappropriate or excessive use of technologies. UNESCO has recently furthered this debate by calling for a global ban on smartphones in schools, as smartphones have been linked to disruptions in the classroom, which leads to a reduced education performance, and high levels of screen time can negatively impact children’s wellbeing. Moreover, there is the added problem that continued access to smartphones also gives unlimited access to risky online behaviour, such as gambling, pornography access, or cyberbullying.
Another frequent concern goes beyond what is being done online, to what is not being done, as while we are scrolling through our mobile phones, we may be ignoring someone trying to speak with us or forgetting to prepare for our Leaving Cert. Phone bans at schools may help improve school engagement and face-to–face relationships and provide a blanket rule so students can’t go for good old "but teacher everyone else is on their phones".
Yet, we know that positive supervision of Internet use within the household seems to be more efficient than a restrictive approach, so the same may hold true for schools trying to reduce the impact of children’s misuse of technology. Examples of positive supervision include family conversations to foster children's understanding and critical analysis of Internet content and usage, or shared use of the Internet, with the main intent of establishing trusted adults as role models for good use and reference figures for whenever the children face an issue on the internet.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, UNESCO recommends smartphone ban in schools, could it work in Ireland?
Restrictive approaches, such as a complete smartphone ban, keep adolescents from developing their own self-regulation strategies over smartphone usage, which may lead to an increased desire to perform the forbidden behaviour; they may also disregard children’s online rights like seeking and receiving information on media. Besides, young people have started to communicate more online rather than face-to-face, so removing access to smartphones can isolate them from their friends outside of school and restrict access to their families in the case of an emergency. It also excludes them from potentially useful resources, especially children that may be dependent on translation or interpretation services, such as migrants and deaf or hard of hearing people.
The truth is we really don’t know how effective mobile phone ban policies are and whether the use of restrictive approaches (e.g., phone pouches in schools) or voluntary initiatives (e.g., no buying phones for children until post-primary) have a positive impact on children, a negative one, or a combination of both - depending on who is asked. This is why we are launching a study at DCU Anti-Bullying Centre with some schools in Ireland, asking ourselves: Is a school ban on smartphones the solution to improve online safety? And will a ban improve academic performance and classroom environment?
Dr Megan Reynolds is a postdoctoral researcher working on the Cilter DTIF Project at the Anti-Bullying Centre at DCU. Dr Maryam Esfandiari is a Postdoctoral researcher working on the "Apps Against Abuse" project at the Anti-Bullying Centre at DCU. Dr Sandra Sanmartín Feijóo is a researcher on the Apps Against Abuse project and the FUSE Anti-Bullying and Online Safety Programme for schools at the Anti-Bullying Centre at DCU.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
