Why go smartphone free?

A Policy Exchange report found that schools with an 'effective ban' (Gold and Silver) achieved GSCE results that were 1-2 grades higher. This was despite the fact that these schools had a higher proportion of children eligible for free school meals. The report discovers which kinds of ban are 'effective' and which are not.

The PISA report 2022, conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, found that students who spend less than one hour of “leisure” time on digital devices a day scored about 50 points higher in maths than students who were using screens more than five hours a day. This gap held even after adjusting for socioeconomic factors.

This study found that even though smartphones were not used, the knowledge of their presence reduced concentration and led to lower performance in tests, showing reduced cognitive capacity, which the paper calls 'brain drain'.

This paper found that in schools where mobile phones were banned during break time, the number of children reading magazines during break time was almost 60% higher than in schools where mobile phones were allowed. An increase was also obvious in reading books (+13.54% on schools with the ban), playing board games (+65%), playing card games (+43%) and sport activities (+29%).

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Anecdotally, teachers also report the rise in noise levels and playfulness at breaktimes. "It's like we've got our children back" reported one member of staff where the year 7s now have a 'no smartphones on site' policy.

One analysis found that bullying dropped from from 33% to 18% when smartphones were better regulated, in ages 12-14. The drop was from 27% to 9.5% in ages 15-17.

The Policy Exchange report 'Disconnect' showed that on average there was an 83% drop in mobile phone confiscations per term where an effective ban was in place. The average was 26 per term compared to 159 for a 'banned but present' ban.

83% parents believe that smartphones are harmful to children. And parents of primary school age children are ​“terrified” as 77% back a ban on smartphones for under 16s, finds this Parentkind poll.