What’s behind the ban on cell phones in K-12 schools?

This school year, many of the nation’s adolescents and teens are sitting in class without the device that can sometimes feel like an added appendage: their smartphones.

States such as Florida, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, and Louisiana have passed laws recently to ban or restrict cell phones in K-12 schools, while countless school districts in dozens of other states have implemented policies to limit use.

In Maryland, more than 20 school districts launched programs at the start of the school year to keep phones turned off and out of sight. Baltimore County Public Schools, for instance, introduced a pilot program in 16 middle and high schools that requires students to lock devices in “cell phone pouches” at the start of every class.

Similarly, Howard County high school students must stow phones in backpacks and use them only between classes and during lunch, while elementary and middle school students can’t use them at all, unless an administrator makes an exception for a special event or to reward positive behavior.

What’s driving the slew of policies?

Mounting research suggests that smartphone use may be fueling the country’s mental health crisis among youth—and leading to problems in schools that range from dwindling attention spans to a lack of engagement in learning and stymied social-emotional development.

To discuss the research and policies, the Hub recently met with Carol Vidal, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Annette C. Anderson, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools and an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Education. In this condensed version of the conversation, Vidal and Anderson discuss their findings from research and share insight on their firsthand experience with kids and teens at school.

Dr. Vidal, you published a study this past May in the International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction that investigates links between social media use and mental health. What did you learn?

Much of the discussion surrounding social media use focuses on whether it’s the cause of the current mental health crisis that involves increased rates of depression and anxiety among youth. I don’t really think that’s the case. What our study shows—and what most of the research indicates—is that people with higher rates of depression tend to use social media more. That doesn’t mean, however, that one causes the other. It’s just means that people who are high users of social media or have problematic social media use also tend to be more depressed.

But it’s not clear that one causes the other. In our study, for example, social media use did not increase depression over time.

What is clear, however, is that social media is a tool that gives access to a broad range of content. It’s also intentionally designed with features that make it addictive. Developers and designers want users to stay engaged as they interact with their platforms—that’s how they make money. The goal is to expose users to an endless stream of content. The more interesting the content is to the user, the longer they will stay engaged and see ads.

Another finding from research is that excessive social media use is linked to unhealthy behaviors that affect not only mental health but also physical health. These include behaviors like staying up too late at night and spending less time outdoors, which are associated with internalizing disorders—depression, anxiety—that involve emotional distress. These disorders have increased among youth in the last two decades when young people have also been spending more time at home, instead of going out to interact with the world.

What does a social media addiction look like?

Vidal: A large percentage of people who use social media have problematic social media use, which means they engage with it in unhealthy ways, thinking about it constantly and centering their lives around it. They use it excessively, too, and feel they don’t have control over their use. It takes them away from doing things that are healthier for their development, such as spending time outside, getting enough physical activity and sleep, focusing on school and work, and reading a book for pleasure. This is especially risky for children and teens because their brains are still developing, and they have less control over their impulses.

It’s also difficult for younger people because this is often how they socialize. Their relationships involve and sometimes revolve around social media. This makes social media hard for kids and teens—and hard for parents and teachers—to moderate.

Studies show that social media and other screen addictions are similar to, say, a drug or alcohol addiction. All addictions involve the neurotransmitter dopamine. And just like with any addiction, social media engagement—the comments, the likes, and so on—can release dopamine, which acts as a reward that stimulates the system and makes a person feel good temporarily. That’s how people get hooked.

Dr. Anderson, what happens, then, when kids and teens have access to a potentially addictive form of media at school via their cell phones?

Let me start by saying this: Most parents gave their kids cell phones so they could have immediate access to communicate. In this era of school shootings, phones became a matter of safety—and a matter of coordinating the busy schedules and lives of modern families. It had nothing to do with giving kids access to video games and platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. That was an unintentional consequence.

But what parents and teachers are seeing is that smartphones have created all sorts of problems. Some students take and post inappropriate videos. Fights in schools go viral because students record and then post footage online. And students are distracted in class because they’re addicted to the apps that beg for their attention.

Smartphones are also changing how our young people pay attention. They’re distracted, and it now seems like practically everyone has ADHD because they’re being constantly bombarded with images, sounds, and all kinds of actions that are potentially interfering with their capacity to concentrate in school.

And kids and teens aren’t the only ones. Many of us sleep with our smartphones. We’re all paying the consequences. Family mealtimes, which give kids and caregivers a chance to connect, talk through what happened during the day, and a lot more—all of this is going by the wayside, in large part because of phones.

How does student cell phone use in classrooms affect teachers? What are you hearing from administrators and teachers and seeing firsthand in schools?

Anderson: So many educators have told me they’re unable to do the jobs they’re called to do because of the constant disruptions. Whether students have earbuds or headphones, they’re distracted. As a society, we’re losing our capacity to say that the time spent at school is sacred for learning because we’ve disrupted it with constant images, sounds, and actions that detract and distract from the day-to-day mission of instruction.

In addition to academics, phones are hurting social relationships and disrupting the developmental capacity of young people to experience joy in a conversation and understand how to give other people a chance to share in a group setting. All of this is evident in the school cafeteria, where everyone is staring down at a phone, instead of practicing social skills—not just taking turns but also thinking about and reflecting on the social dynamics, on how to show empathy for others, and even on what topics to bring up to have a conversation. These are the things American society is built on, and our young people are missing out.

School administrators tell me they see the impact every day. Our students are more anxious, more depressed, and less inclined to take risks in getting to know people they might not otherwise know. This, in turn, makes their circle smaller than the schoolhouse should be. The schoolhouse should be about maximum engagement and interactions. Sometimes, particularly if you’re an introvert, it becomes easier to use the phone as an escape from having to practice the very social skills that will someday help you in the workforce and in public.

For these reasons, I understand that school leaders are at their wits’ end in wanting to do what they can to maintain these long-established social mores.

What can families and teachers do to help kids and teens set limits on screen time, whether at school or elsewhere?

Vidal: Smartphone and social media addictions are not yet formal disorders listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, so diagnosis is tricky. But the key is to pay attention to whether it affects functioning in daily life. If kids or teens are neglecting their studies or responsibilities, or if they’re going to sleep late or not eating, and the family hasn’t been able to help the child moderate their use, then those may be signs to seek help by reaching out to a school counselor or psychologist.

With screen addictions like video gaming, for example, some kids will forego eating and spend all night playing games. I’ve seen this behavior in some of my patients. Other signs that warrant attention are spending less time outdoors, and to a certain extent, isolating from the world.

Ultimately, it’s critical for all of us—health care providers, educators, parents and other family members, and friends—to encourage a balance of moderate screen and social media use, outdoor activity, and exercise in today’s digital age. Restricting cell phone use in schools is a step in the right direction and an opportunity for children and adolescents to learn to engage with the world in a different way.

When someone attempts to quit alcohol or other addictive substances, the first thing they do is empty their home of said substance. The key with screen addictions, I believe, is moderation, and the best way to achieve this is by restricting access to smartphones in certain environments, at least temporarily, so students are not constantly tempted to use it when bored or anxious, and so they can engage more fully with schoolwork, school staff, and the classmates around them.

Anderson: Many kids today are stressed and disconnected. That’s why vaping and opioid use are on the rise, and educators need tools to talk about these and other issues in ways that encourage kids to listen. This is the goal of the Johns Hopkins Health Education and Training (HEAT) Corps, a program in the School of Education for which I serve as the curriculum director. With the HEAT Corps, we equip teachers with the awareness and resources they need to understand the many challenges students face today, from long COVID and gun violence to e-cigarettes, cyberbullying, and social media.

I think it’s essential—and part of the HEAT Corps’ mission—to help young people become self-advocates around cell phone use. As a culture, we’ve gone from having television go off at 11 o’clock at night—when a flag would appear on-screen, and you’d hear a song and know it’s time for bed—to 24-hour programming. We’ve fundamentally shifted our access to entertainment without implementing the necessary education. Now, we want everything on demand, not just our entertainment but also our deliveries and even our education. We expect things to happen instantaneously, and our capacity to attend to any one topic for more than a few minutes has severely diminished.

The main challenge with schools taking cell phones away is that families have a diminished capacity to immediately contact their child. If you look at social media in the wake of the recent school shooting in Georgia, you’ll see parents expressing panic over the school cell phone bans. They don’t want their kids to give up their cell phones.

One solution is to develop a device that functions only as a telephone. Another option is to integrate software in schools that disarms apps but still lets kids contact their caregivers. With the current strategy of locking phones in storage pouches, bookbags, or lockers, the jury is out on whether that will work—and whether kids who want to use their phones will bypass the rules and find a workaround.

That’s why education and awareness are critical in helping kids become self-advocates. As adults, they’ll have endless digital content available at their fingertips. The time to teach them healthy behaviors and boundary-setting is now.