Why Schools Should Ban Smartphones, Not Bag Them

More and more UK schools are realising that they must act to prevent children accessing smartphones on their premises, a victory for the relentless campaigning by parents, often via organisations such as Smartphone Free Childhood and Delay Smartphones.  

However, what should be a moment of celebration is actually one of extreme jeopardy, as schools move into two distinct camps.

Some are opting for storage solutions for smartphones, such as pouches or lockers. Others are simply prohibiting smartphones from the premises. 

When it comes to matters of protecting children from harm, these two policies are night and day. 

Not only are storage solutions not the best solution to the problem of smartphones and children, they are, in fact, part of the problem. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. Storing smartphones normalises smartphone ownership by children. Schools are saying to parents, pupils, visitors and so on -  it is normal, it is expected, that all secondary school children have smartphones. They are saying, this is part of our school culture, to take in something (that we know is harmful) and to give it back at the end of the day. Yet this is precisely the norm that campaigners have spent years fighting to change!

   
   

2. Storage systems such as pouches actively encourage parents of Year 6 children (10 or 11 years old) to buy their child a smartphone. I have seen documents with pouches on the school kit list, along with a calculator and a ruler! In other words, the current ‘hinge point’, from primary to secondary, when the majority of children tip into the hands of BigTech, is actively encouraged and institutionalised by pouches. 

   
   

3. Pouches are expensive. The price point appears to be somewhere between £25-£30 per pouch. The recent 9 million Euro deal signed with the Irish government is eyewatering. Why spend sums such as this when schools can simply prohibit smartphones from the premises?

   
   

4. Storage solutions promote the idea that schools cannot manage the problem of smartphones themselves, that they require external help and support. The reality is, schools prohibit items all the time, every day. From vapes to Tipp-Ex, schools are well versed in adding items to the list of things that cannot be brought onto the premises and then enforcing this. As shown by the recent announcement by West London Free School to prohibit smartphones from the premises, with a bit of leadership and a proper system in place (confiscation for 6 weeks and a Saturday detention), this is well within the power of schools to manage. Storage solutions disempower schools. 

   
   

5. Storage systems require more management than simple prohibition, not less. As explained above, schools can quite easily add smartphones to the list of prohibited items, whereas storage systems require new infrastructure, frequent checks on pupils, new kit being ordered and so on.

   
   

6. Storage systems lock schools into an agreement that many will find hard to leave. After spending significant time and resources convincing parents of the need to go in a certain direction, of consulting with pupils and investing significant political capital with staff and other stakeholders, senior school leaders are unlikely to be receptive to a message that says ‘you were well intentioned but you got it wrong’. They will most likely stay put, especially because the alternative, prohibition, is the harder choice, the harder sell. Not because it’s wrong but precisely because it’s right.

I do firmly believe that storage companies such as Yondr are well-intentioned. I have heard their founder, Graham Dugoni, speak eloquently and passionately about the harms that smartphones cause. I love Yondr as a solution to creating better experiences for live events such as concerts and comedy shows. 

But they are an adult solution to adult environments. 

By locking up smartphones for only the school day, storage systems help to ‘lock in’ the smartphone based childhood. This is precisely the opposite outcome to what so many of us, having read Jonathan Haidt’s Anxious Generation, are seeking.

It would be tragic if all the hard work and campaigning of parents to bring schools and politicians to their senses, to make them see that they need help and support with this issue, was to result in a system that perpetuates the very harms they have been seeking to stop.

Storage systems don’t support delaying the age that children are given smartphones. They don’t support delaying until at least 14, and social media until at least 16.

But prohibiting smartphones from the school premises does do this. It really is that simple.

Should your school be considering changing its policy, share this short piece with them and with other parents. Tell the school that, given they are concerned about smartphones on the school premises, you therefore expect them to step up and prohibit them, that nothing less is good enough. 

In terms of child protection, safeguarding, wellbeing and, most of all, the flourishing of children, storage systems are even worse than a poor second best option. 

Our children deserve the best option available. Conveniently, the best is also the cheapest and easiest. It just requires the will to take it.

Guy Holder

Guy is a teacher and Head of PSHE at a school in London. He has been campaigning on the issue of smartphones and children since 2022. 

The opinions shared are his own and are not intended to reflect the views of his employer.