School phone bans don’t do much, but age appropriate design does

Age checks for social media are on the minds of regulators globally, including in the UK. In a presentation from the recent Westminster eForum policy conference, Professor Victoria Goodyear of the University of Birmingham looks at “options for imposing limits on children’s smartphone and social media usage.”

Goodyear, who is a professor of physical activity, health and wellbeing, weighs the benefits of smartphone bans in schools in trying to understand how the public feels about them, and where they fit in the wider push for digital safety. The study she led at the University of Birmingham measures the correlations between phone use, anxiety, depression, sleep quality and disruptive behavior.

Schools have adopted varying policies around phones. Goodyear categorizes them as permissive or restrictive, both of which have subdivisions in terms of stringency. Some want phones in lockers or bags, while others allow phone use in certain places at certain times.

Turns out, according to Goodyear’s findings, it doesn’t matter much. There was “no significant difference in all outcomes for adolescents who attend school with a restrictive phone policy compared to a permissive phone policy.” Stricter policies don’t change the results.

What does matter is the time kids spend on their phones overall – and specifically on social media – which restrictive policies tend to reduce. “A significant association was found between time spent on phones and social media and the outcomes,” Goodyear says. The 30-40 minutes that restrictive phone policies are keeping kids off their phones and off TikTok are small beans in the grand scheme.

“In-school phone use and social media use was only a small contributor for overall use on school days and on weekends.”

Effectively, Goodyear’s study tells regulators and parents that school phone bans aren’t going to solve the social media crisis. Different policies should focus on phone use both in and out of school, and should take a holistic approach to health and well-being. And there should be more work done to amass evidence, in part to satisfy requirements in the UK Private Members’ Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill for research into the impact of social media on children.

Age appropriate design, education can help curb harms

Beyond bans, there are other policy tools that Goodyear says come recommended by a group of international experts on child online safety. Age appropriate design is one; companies need to ensure they design products that prioritize the well being of their users – or at least stop creating addictive features on purpose.

New forms of education on technology is another. The world is still adapting to the ubiquity of the smartphone and the additional reliance on digital tech that emerged during pandemic-related lockdowns – and the inconvenient truth may be that it’s not just youth who have a big social media problem.

More answers will be available soon; Australia’s trailblazing social media ban for users under 16 goes into effect on December 10.

Article Topics

age verification  |  children  |  Online Safety Act  |  regulation  |  social media  |  UK age verification