Ridding schools of smartphones sounds like the obvious solution to children’s issues with the internet. A hard no to having them in lessons or the playground, with pouches for pupils to lock phones away as part of a statutory governmental bell-to-bell ban. But what exactly are the problems we are trying to fix here? As far as I can see from all the research, books, and science, a statutory school phone ban isn’t the answer to a happier, healthier digital childhood. It’s much bigger than that.
What worries me most as we navigate a wave of techno panic around childhood is that there seems to be no grey area in this urgent, fear-filled smartphone discussion, no time for a nuanced debate – or definitive research – into the conflicting and complicated science of our children’s fast-evolving digital experience.
