‘Close to zero impact’: US study casts doubt on effect of phone ban in schools

Submitted ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Powderhorn@beehaw.org⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/05/mobile-phone-ban-schools-us-study

Strict bans on mobile phones in schools have “close to zero” impact on student learning and show no evidence of improvements in attendance or online bullying, a study has found.

Researchers at US universities including Stanford and Duke looked at nearly 1,800 US schools where students’ phones were kept in locked pouches and found little or no differences in outcomes compared with similar schools without strict bans.

The report concluded that among schools instituting a ban: “For academic achievement, average effects on test scores are consistently close to zero.”

The results will come as a disappointment to teaching unions and campaigners in England who backed the government’s recent move to restrict the use of mobile phones in schools. A ban is likely to come into force next year.

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reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Keep in mind the paper is a white paper (not peer reviewed) and it is sponsored by the Bezos Family Foundation and Walton Family. Personally taking it with a grain of salt and waiting for some experts to weigh in who are not economists (like most of the authors are) since I don’t feel like combing through this 100 page document.

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- spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  it gets even stupider than that:
  
  We acknowledge funding from Arnold Ventures
  
  an American company that is the philanthropic vehicle of billionaires John D. Arnold and Laura Arnold
  
  who is this John Arnold guy anyway…let’s see…and…oh
  
  since February 2024, is a member of the board of directors of Meta.
  
  oh, and fun fact, it’s not even a real fucking charity:
  
  The Laura and John Arnold Foundation was initially created as a philanthropic organization, but was restructured as a limited liability company and renamed Arnold Ventures in January 2019. The organization’s LLC structure is intended to allow it to operate with more flexibility.
  
  so he’s on the board of directors for Meta, which among other things owns Instagram…and he has a side business that pretends to be a charity even though it’s not, and it funds publication of a “study” saying no, teenagers having cell phones 24/7 is totally fine actually.
  
  the tobacco industry used to pay people to wear white lab coats and say cigarettes didn’t cause cancer. it’s often tempting to look back in hindsight and say “how could people have fallen for such obvious bullshit?”
  
  well…
  
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  - Crotaro@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Wow that casts a healthy dose of doubt on the entire study. Thank you for pointing it all out so thoroughly!
    
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  - reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I had seen the LLC thing and raised my eyebrows at the projects listed on their wiki, but didn’t see the META board thing, good catch. Everything is both awful and exactly as expected.
    
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  - its_me_xiphos@beehaw.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    This paper is of the same caliber as all of those cigarettes are safe papers from the 70s. Funded propganada with a PR firm plying it to a willing news source.
    
    As an aside, is the Guardian becoming a shit rag? Lately (last year or two) I’ve noticed a huge dip in their quality.
    
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- anachronist@midwest.social ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  The Fox Family Instutitute for Poultry Studies determines that hen house doors should be left open
  
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  - reallykindasorta@slrpnk.net ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Interesting that Guardian didn’t see fit to mention it was a white paper unless I missed something.
    
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SteposVenzny@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

It also found a rise in suspensions and a dip in students’ feelings of wellbeing in the first year after a ban as schools adapted to the change. “Over time, however, disciplinary impacts fade and wellbeing rebounds, becoming positive in subsequent years,” the report said.

So it sounds like the winning play is to not give them phones in the first place. Then you skip straight to positive impacts without going through the negative ones first.

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- Quexotic@beehaw.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Thanks for posting this. It’s good to know that the propaganda still flows
  
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BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz ⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Who would have thought!¿

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- sanzky@beehaw.org ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  anyone not in Meta’s pocket
  
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t3rmit3@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
This should have been obvious. Why would you only be able to bully someone digitally in the time you’re in the school building? I was in high school when cell phones were first coming out, so I remember school before and during phones, and kids always could and would ignore class if they wanted to. This feels like an attempt to divert blame from school systems not being reactive to generational learning differences and needs. There are reasons to ban phones in schools, but if you think that doing so is going to prevent bullying or ignoring class, methinks you don’t remember pre-phone school.

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- maxprime@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  I’m sorry but this comment, as well as the posted article is misguided. I am a classroom teacher and I can say without hesitation that it is 100% impossible to teach someone when they have a phone in their hand. It is extremely challenging when the phone is in their pocket. It is manageable but not ideal when it is in their bag.
  
  Your brain is capable of doing one thing at a time and if that thing is scrolling feeds, then it is not learning.
  
  If you’d like to develop an informed opinion on the matter, I highly recommend The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. His book comes with a website with a regularly updated collection of research and data on the matter. The data is staggering; there is absolutely no question that smartphones do not belong in a classroom, full stop. They generally don’t belong in a child or adolescent’s hand either, but schools cannot do anything about that. To think otherwise simply indicates that you have not been in a classroom later than 2011.
  
  Here is a link to that data: anxiousgeneration.com/…/collaborative-review-docs
  
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  - t3rmit3@beehaw.org ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    My partner is a teacher, as well.
    
    it is 100% impossible to teach someone when they have a phone in their hand
    
    Yes, but this is a symptom of structural problems with our school system. Looking at phones didn’t make kids hate school. Hating school made kids want to look at their phones.
    
    Schools have been shifting from places of learning, which requires exploration, to places of compliance and regurgitation. And it’s not just about the shift towards obedience-based, rote memorization in service of standardized testing (or how schools care about attendance only for funding reasons), we’ve even shifted the literal architectural design philosophy behind how we construct school buildings to be more prison-like.
    
    The pandemic lockdown was horrible for kids, but the rush to reopen schools wasn’t about the negative impact it was having on their social development, it was about serving business interests who wanted their parent-employees back at work. They wanted the childrens’ holding cells reopened.
    
    When we actually start shifting schools back towards environments of learning, at a structural level, I will have sympathy for the mission of education over sympathy for the disinterested ~~inmates~~ students.
    
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Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
When did schools start allowing phones?

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- panda_abyss@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  When the excuse “but what if my mom needs to call me” started working.
  
  Mom can call the school. It worked for 70 years.
  
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  - darkkite@lemmy.ml ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Why does the school have to be the middle-man? Just ban phones during actual classes and let them use it during free periods.
    
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  - Imaginary_Stand4909@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    I distinctly remember my elementary school not being able to call my parents because their area code wasn’t the local area code but okay.
    
    Phones should be allowed in schools, just take them before class starts and hand them back after.
    
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farsinuce@feddit.dk ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
ok, US 😐👍

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