School Smartphone Bans Are Picking Up Steam
There is increasing evidence that smartphones and social media use have a destructive impact on the mental health of young people. Big Tech may not like it, but more and more schools around the world are instituting bans on phones in the classroom.
Schools around the world are instituting a ban on cell phones in the classroom, given concerns over the impact of social media in particular on young people’s mental health.(Matt Cardy / Getty Images)
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is asking Congress to require social media platforms to include warning labels on their product, like cigarette packs before them, and it’s about time. And schools around the world are instituting a ban on cell phones in the classroom. The classroom ban is a modest restriction on the personal liberty of young people, to be sure, but a wise and justifiable one.
Last year, Murthy issued an advisory, warning that social media posed a mental health threat to adolescents. In May 2023, the US Department of Health and Human Services warned that “while social media may offer some benefits, there are ample indicators that social media can also pose a risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.” The department noted that 95 percent of youth are on social media, including more than a third who admitted using it “almost constantly.”
The Death of the Internet’s Early Promise
We’ve known for a long time that cell phones, the internet, and social media can be more than distracting — they can be addictive, too. The early promise of the internet as an open, free, and nonpredatory or nonexploitative space free from commercialization and psychological trickery has long dissipated.
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