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RC Yu•17 days ago
Impact of Social Media on Societysocial media

This UK study (comparing 20 schools with phone bans vs 10 without) found phone bans in schools didn't improve/affect mental wellbeing. But it also found that:

students who spent more time on their phones and social media—no matter the school policy—had worse mental health, slept less, were less active, behaved worse in class, and did less well in school.

There could be some reverse causation going on, but not a surprising finding.

(This was before UK banned social media for kids under 16.)

Kris Willow•17 days ago
Parentingmental health

Do phone bans in schools work?

Most parents have some concerns about phone use. This is an interesting study from the UK, that investigated phone bans in schools.

The study covered 30 schools (20 had phone bans, 10 didn't), with the students aged 12-15.

Their main finding: phone bans don't meaningfully affect/improve mental wellbeing.

Basically the phone bans only reduced phone and social media use slightly, and kids still used their phones at home.

Important point: the phone bans weren't uniform or super strict in all cases -- e.g. some schools just told students keep their phones in their bags.

So we can't say that "phone bans will NEVER work". They just didn't have a huge impact, on average, in the way they were implememted in those 20 schools.

  1. 2025 | Victoria A. Goodyear, Amie Randhawa, Peymané Adab | The Lancet Regional Health - Europe | (2025)
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