[Ripcord09]

Kids everywhere use smartphones now. To play games, watch movies, surf websites, and yes, even study at times. From Turkey to Cambodia to Bangladesh, students also carry their phones into classrooms. And that’s proved to be a challenge for educators.

Smartphones are a massive cause for distraction. With constant access to the world outside, or friends inside the classroom, it isn’t hard to imagine why teachers may struggle to keep their students’ attention. There are other harmful effects, too, from being online all the time.

Which is why there’s now a global movement to ban smartphones in schools. Within India, states like Gujarat and Delhi have issued directives to teachers and parents on how to limit students’ exposure to social media and phones. The government is ‘worried’ about what this exposure is doing to children’s mental health.

Recent ruling by Delhi High Court

In a significant ruling, the Delhi High Court refused to ban children from bringing smartphones to school. The court clarified in its decision that the use of smartphones does not negatively impact teaching, discipline, or the overall educational environment in the classroom.

As a policy, students should not be barred from carrying smartphones to school, but the use of smartphones must be regulated and monitored. Schools should have the discretion to implement policies that fit their unique situations.

For large swathes of school-going children in India, phones could become a lifeline for a better quality of education. This started during Covid as a necessity, when all of a sudden, content from around the country and the world was available to Indian students.

Despite the benefits to education, who is monitoring effects on attention spans, especially on developing brains? As adults, we’re told to keep separate spaces for work, leisure, etc. How does using the same device for playing games and studying affect habit-building and productivity?

Should schools enforce stricter controls on smartphone usage, or should they focus on teaching students how to use them responsibly? Share your thoughts.

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[sreerknair]

Just finished reading a book - The Anxious Generation - and I see this new thread. Whether schools allow it or not, as a parent, I will restrict kid's mobile phone usage as much as I can, and I will prefer a school where brining phone is banned. As per my understanding, mobile phone usage is bad for kids and, to some extent, even for adults. For kids, any benefits from mobile phone usage are negligible compared to the damage it does. The book i mentioned gives the details. After all, Newton and Einstein lived in a world without phones.

[anandbangalore]

Smartphones should be banned in school. The very existence of smartphones in one's hand (child, adult, elderly) leads to misuse (using the phone for anything but communications) .

There is NO WAY anyone's going to get anyone use them 'responsibly'.

Allow use of a feature phone for communication. WhatsApp isnt the only for of communication. SMS and phone calls will always exist.


Think a working adult in a meeting in office.
Think a licensed driver on the road.
Think a panditji doing a havan.
The chowkidaar during duty at night.
Heck the armed forces can't get get soldiers to use phones responsibly.

[dailydriver]

The best way to wean kids away from smart phones in schools is to ask their teachers to stay away from theirs!

Children have a tendency to pick up habits from their surroundings; we do know the saying Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

Don't we?

[Jeroen]

There is quite some evidence that clearly shows how much smartphones are distracting inside the school.

Smart phones are banned on all Dutch primary and secondary schools for the last two years. Teachers, pupils and parents are, by and large, quite enthusiastic about these bans.

Jeroen

[freelancer6202]

Phones should be banned for students and teachers alike. No arguement here. People and children were safe, connected and informed well before smart phones invavded our lives.

[bblost]

Being brutally honest here.

If I was a 12 year old with a mobile phone that connects me to the seedy side of the internet in a completely private environment, there is only one thing I would end up doing.

This is a no-brainer.

Kids should not be able to have a device that lets others unfettered access into their lives.

If the need for communication is very important a cheap phone that only supports sms and calling will be more than adequate.
There is no need for mobile data in the device.

[narayans80]

There is no use case for smartphones when kids are in the school campus. School transportation (school, privately owned or own transport) happens in controlled environments. There used to be a handful of blokes who commuted anything more than 3 km in my schooldays in the 1980s and 1990s. Its even rare in the present generation.

The only use case happened when my 15 year old went for competition in a different city, bringing cellphones was officially allowed. They are connected enough with a laptop, which is mandatory from class 6.

These points are specific to India.

[boniver]

Students should be banned from carrying cellphones to school, period. I don't know why schools need a high court ruling to enforce this, they can have their own rules too. When I was in school in Kolkata (which was not a very long time ago, 2003-2017), cellphones were strictly banned and if a phone was found, it would be confiscated and returned to the parent only at the end of the academic year. In high school, some of us did carry our phones to school but that is only because we were rebellious (and also because I used to travel alone to and from school, over 25kms one way). I can testify that the phones served no real purpose to us, they only enabled us to get distracted during class. I don't think I ever saw my teachers use their cellphones during class hours either.

[GTO]

I'm a big proponent of allowing my kids to use smartphones. It is the most effective communication & safety tool for them. Thanks to Team-BHP (related thread), I got to know of the Qustodio app. Installed on the child's phone and it greatly restricts web & app access to only those I approve / child-friendly ones.

I can also set time limits for usage (say, 1 hour every day). I can reach my kid anytime (and more importantly, my child can call me in any emergency). It also has location tracking.

Just like a TV, laptop, outside food, desserts, playdates with friends, toys and new clothes, a smartphone in moderation is great for kids. You cannot deny access to the single-most game-changing tool of our times.

Just be sure to use an app like Qustodio

[100Kmphormore]

Absolute NO. With todays overconnected (and often misused and preyed upon) world of social media (including WhatsApp to an extent), handling a smartphone while balancing education and during character building years is too much, atleast until 22. I equate it to drug usage. For the parents too to monitor them. This has other effects too, ranging from poor performance in studies to misbehaviour to eating disorders, kids as young as 2-3 years old do not eat unless a smartphone is in their hands. I have seen this first hand with my neighbours younger son, the elder one is considerably more well behaved. The first smartphone should be with their hard earned money. Until then, keypad Jiophones will do.

I got my first proper (and working) smartphone with my own money when I started working in 2018. Consider it a blessing as I know the value of money, and since it was a dream since 4 years (my father owned a Nexus 5 since 2014 and never gave it to me to play even once), no instant gratification like todays generation is exposed to and incidents like "accidentally dropping the phone" has never occurred with me, knowing I am the one poorer and no parents buying me a new one. Sure, I am the fossil in friends groups not knowing how to game, shortcuts etc, but a big peace of mind. I myself restrict my screen time to an hour a day(calls and Whatsapp) and other stuff is handled on the iPad/laptop with similar restriction.

[sunnysideup_]

No, I don’t think cellphones should be banned in schools but I certainly think they must be regulated. I finished my schooling in 2018, and I had a smartphone from 2014-2018. This was the early days of students having smartphones, and thus there wasn’t necessarily a school policy on smartphone usage. In 9th and 10th std, our class teacher would take away our phones in the morning, and give them back in the evening. This way, if someone from our family contacted us during the day, they’d be aware and let us know, and we didn’t really need phones for much else. In 11th and 12th std, the teachers let us keep our phones on ourselves, because as older students I think they had a certain amount of trust in us.

I understand the situation is a little different these days, with students much younger having cellphones. I don’t think banning them is the right way to go though. It’s unfortunate, but this is an added responsibility the teachers have to undertake as necessitated by the changing times. I still do think collecting them at the start of the day and giving them back when the day gets over is the right way to go. Any learning that can’t be covered by a certified teacher on a blackboard can wait till the evening, I feel.

[Joe367]

I'm of the opinion kids shouldn't be even allowed to use smartphones till high school, even at home. Companies are still selling good dumb phones that can only make calls and send messages. And if needed for online education, parents can buy a laptop or chromebook for their children to use rather than buying them a smartphone.

The main issue that i find is YouTube shorts - you don't even have to create an id inorder to watch YouTube shorts. My cousin used to give his phone to his child to make him sit quiet. Now he has his own phone. He's very much addicted to short videos, he is restless and unable to sit for 5 mins without watching short videos. And we will be surprised by how brain-rot the content that is getting recommended is. Most of them are misogynistic, transphobic, conspiracy theories, stupid prank/dance videos, pseudo-science, adult jokes stc. There are also content farms which randomly generate tons of brain-rot videos using AI and publish them into youtube shorts.

Even as an adult, I feel like I no longer have the patience to watch lengthy movies or read articles and even long threads in team-bhp. I cant even imagine how repeatedly watching these kind of content is going to affect the personality of kids as they grow up.

[jomyboy]

Originally Posted by GTO

Just be sure to use an app like Qustodio

Why shell out cash when Google's parental controls give you everything you need?

During Covid, we let our daughter explore YouTube and the results were mind-blowing! Within months, she was rocking a Western accent that would make you do a double-take. Her vocabulary? Absolutely exploded! My 4-year-old was dropping words that had me secretly Googling definitions under the table. Talk about a proud dad moment!

Eventually, she outgrew YouTube Kids (as all the cool kids do), and the learning factor was dropping. So I did what any tech-savvy dad would do - set up some ninja-level controls on regular YouTube for her tablet, but here's what drives me crazy - YouTube Shorts. What's the deal? Parents everywhere are practically begging YouTube to ditch this attention-grabbing mess. It's like we're all shouting into the void while our kids get sucked into endless scrolling.

Anyone else fighting this battle? What controls have worked for your family? Always looking to level up my dad game!

[speed79]

Smartphones should be banned in schools as these are big distractions and can take the kids in wrong direction. My kids' school does not let the students phones in classes. Kids are allowed to bring the phone to school but they need to deposit it to at the reception, and they can take it back while leaving the school. I do not give phone to my kids as it is not needed. We do have phone numbers of school bus helper and bus driver, and we can reach them anytime while they are in bus. The bus has a GPS tracker and we can track location of the bus. In case of emergency, we can always call up school reception and they are prompt in addressing any emergency.

My son (age 17) goes to Allen using Ola/Uber (my wife books Ola/Uber for him and tracks him on their map), and we have given him a phone so that once he has reached, he can send us a message before entering the building. Allen uses phone jammers to prevent misuse of phone during classes. Once we needed to contact him to give an important message, and the reception obliged. So there is no real need to give a phone to kids.

I use Google Family Link to control the app usage and website permissions, and also use it sometimes to locate him. To my little one (11 years old), I have given a ChromeBook with Google Family link controls. Even my elder one's Windows laptop has Family Link control, and I have disabled incognito mode in Chrome and Edge browsers.

While adults can so easily be distracted by YouTube Shorts/instagram videos etc, an internet connected device can easily take the kids in wrong direction. Kids are not mature enough to differentiate between good and evil and it is always preferable to keep the usage of devices by kids under strict supervision.