Laws seeking to ban phones in school are misguided

New MP Josh McAllister is presenting a bill to the UK Parliament that he calls the Safer Phones Bill, but parliamentary record calls Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection). He describes it as ‘A Bill to provide greater protection for the rights and best interests of children engaging with digital services, in particular through the use of smartphones and other internet-enabled portable devices.’

These are the four things McAllister wants the UK government to get involved in:

Raising the age of internet adulthood from 13 to 16, by raising the age at which companies can get data consent from children without parental permission. This will make it harder for companies to push addictive content to children by using their data to feed algorithms, and it will give greater powers to parents.

Delivering smartphone free schools, by backing headteachers with a legal requirement that all schools should be mobile free zones. This would be done by putting existing guidance on a statutory footing.

Strengthening Ofcom’s powers to protect children from apps that are designed to be addictive. This would mean giving Ofcom a specific mandate to protect children’s interests and new powers to require tech companies to implement effective age verification and enforce a code of conduct to prevent children being exposed to ‘addictive by design’ apps and services.

Committing Government to review further regulation if needed of the design, supply, marketing and use of mobile phones by children under 16.

The first of those seems reasonable and the last is vague to the point of being redundant, while seeking to further augment the already considerable powers Ofcom has recently been granted under the Online Safety law seems at the very least premature. But the most contentious part of McAllister’s wish list proposes using law to intervene in the day-to-day running of schools.

It’s typical of the weaselly language used by authoritarians who seek to restrict freedoms in the name of safety that McAllister speaks of “backing headteachers with a legal requirement”. Is this something headteachers have requested? What happens to headteachers who decline this backing? Inevitably, McAllister has also unilaterally adopted the nation’s parents as a supportive client group too.

But the government itself doesn’t seem so keen on such a ban. The PA managed to get some comment from the Prime Minister’s official spokesman on the matter: “Headteachers already have the power to ban phones in school and many have chosen to exercise this right. So we don’t have plans to legislate in that particular area.” Quite. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Here’s a video of McAllister pleading his case.

Meanwhile in the US Pew Research has found that ‘most Americans back cellphone bans during class, but fewer support all-day restrictions’. The accompanying report points to a national trend towards school smartphone bans, which is probably where McAllister got his bright idea from, but he will presumably be disappointed to see that the parents he’s so keen to represent mostly don’t fancy the idea.

The law is a blunt instrument that should only be used when more discreet, bespoke attempts at social persuasion have been proven to be inadequate, and even then only in the prevention of substantial threats to the population. Smartphones do pose a range of novel issues for children but surely it’s the job of parents, and to a lesser extent teachers, to manage this, not the government.

Incidentally Three UK has decided to offer screen time advice to adults, on the back of research that shows an amazing third of British adults reckon they need help with that sort of thing. Apparently Three in-store staff are now trained to offer helpful advice such as suggesting people put their phones down every now and then and maybe chat to their mates or whatever instead.

“At Three UK, we believe in the positive potential of smartphones to enrich our lives,” insisted Elaine Carey, Chief Commercial Officer at Three UK. “But we also know that it takes some practice to truly take control of your screen time and find a way to be mindful with it. Our new measures are designed to help customers make sure they’re using devices in a way that truly benefits them, empowering them to make the most of their digital experience.” 

It will be interesting to see how many Three customers request this empowerment but at the very least it's more like the sort of thing the government should be looking at, rather than banning first and asking questions later. Perhaps McAllister should confer with Dr Jack Lewis, a neuroscientist who was consulted on the Three initiative.

"For too long we've focused almost entirely on the time children spend on their mobile devices,” said Lewis. “Now is the time to arm adults with the right resources and help they need to feel in charge of their screen time to ensure that its positive and purposeful. My challenge to you, is to look closely at your phone habits, reflect on them and start actively building better habits."