In this back-to-school edition, we explore phone bans in schools: the research, the trade-offs, and how schools are navigating tech and learning.

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Should schools ban phones?

William Schnider, a rising senior in high-school in Los Angeles, didn’t see how a phone ban at school would work. If he’s getting good grades, why should his phone be banned?

But he also admitted that it’s easy to base your worth on how many likes you get from an Instagram post. At school, he’s seen students in class turn to their phones ([link removed] ) when a math problem gets hard or start playing games on their phone if they finish an assignment early.

Schnider is one of millions of students in the US encountering new restrictions on phone usage and access in schools as young people, educators, legislators, and parents grapple with big questions.

Do phones adversely affect the learning process?

Does banning them prevent parents from reaching their kids during an emergency?

Instead of banning phones, is it better to help kids develop a healthier relationship with their devices?

While there is a growing chorus of experts calling for restricting phone usage at school, phone bans—a term that encompasses restrictions ranging from collecting phones at the beginning of the school day to limiting access to phone usage to certain times—have produced only mixed results.

In this week’s newsletter, we’re exploring what’s at stake when schools ban phones, the research on whether bans are effective, and how implementation might work.

// The case for restricting phone usage

Parents and educators are concerned that ubiquitous access to phones impacts childhood development and learning. A 2023 study from Common Sense Media ([link removed] ) , a Project Liberty Institute Alliance member, found that 97% of 11-17-year-olds used their phones during school hours for a median of 43 minutes. Those students received a median of 237 notifications a day, with 25% of those notifications happening during school time.

According to Pew Research, 72% of high school teachers ([link removed] ) say students being distracted by their cellphones in the classroom is a “major problem.” What kind of problem? Critics point to two main reasons:

Reason #1: Phones can interfere with the learning process.

Studies that compare students with and without phones in classrooms found that those without phones have better academic performance ([link removed] ) , higher attention on class material ([link removed] ) , better memory ([link removed] ) of information learned, and lower feelings of nervousness ([link removed] ) during class.

According to the National Parents Union, one in every two K-12 parents ([link removed] ) worry that phones interfere with their child’s learning. One in three K-12 teachers ([link removed] ) believe that students distracted by their phones is a major problem in their classroom.

After a school ban, one teen in New York said ([link removed] ) , “I definitely think that not having my phone during my free periods, and even during my lunch, I was able to focus. It kind of just made me and other kids focus on their schoolwork more than just sitting on their phone and watching TikTok through the whole period.”

Reason #2: Phones can threaten kids' social development and mental health.

Phone use during the school day could interfere with in-person social interactions and heighten risks for cyberbullying. Jackie Goldberg, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board President, expressed a common concern ([link removed] ) amongst educators and parents about how phone usage is hampering connection, “It's gotten to the point that students don't talk face to face, but instead text one another when they're sitting right next to each other!”

The US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who issued an advisory ([link removed] ) on social media and youth mental health said in a New York Times op-ed ([link removed] ) earlier this summer, “Schools should ensure that classroom learning and social time are phone-free experiences.”

Push-back

But there isn’t consensus that phones should be fully banned.

- Parents have expressed concern that a phone ban would prevent them from reaching their children ([link removed] ) during an emergency. The growing fear of school shootings and campus lock-downs has fueled a desire by parents ([link removed] ) to be able to communicate with their kids.
- Phones can be useful devices in the learning process, and some students believe educational apps, note-taking apps, and other phone-based tools that enable the learning process are necessary.

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97% of 11-17 year-olds used their phones during school hours.

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// Back at school, away from devices

Across the United States, private schools, public school districts, and entire states are grappling with what to do about phones in schools.

- In 2023, Florida became the first state in the nation ([link removed] ) to ban phones in schools. Since then, others have followed. Louisiana ([link removed] ) , Indiana ([link removed] ) , and South Carolina ([link removed] ) have implemented restrictions, and cities like Los Angeles passed a ban ([link removed] ) earlier this year to prevent its 429,000 students from using phones when classes resume this fall.

In 2024 alone, eight states have passed laws, and many more ([link removed] ) are considering similar bans. If all the proposed bans in states across the country pass, then nearly 20 million kids, or one out of every four Americans under the age of 18 ([link removed] ) , would live in states where phones are banned at school.

// What the research says about phone bans

But for all the policy momentum to ban phones in schools, the results are mixed. Research from Europe reveals less conclusive evidence that reducing phone usage increases academic performance.

- A study in Spain ([link removed] ) (2022) found that standardized test scores increased for middle-schoolers and bullying decreased in one region that banned phones for personal use in classrooms.
- A study in Norway ([link removed] ) (2024) looked at a variety of phone policies—from banning phones to keeping them on silent—and found only small improvements in GPA and reductions in bullying, but only for girls, and especially for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
- A study in Sweden ([link removed] ) (2019) found that phone bans in schools had no impact on ninth graders’ academic achievement.

More research is needed. A 2024 meta-analysis ([link removed] ) of existing academic research on phone bans found weak and inconclusive results.

// Implementation matters

The devil is in the details of implementation, and there isn’t widespread agreement on how to implement restrictions. The implementation quandary ([link removed] ) hinges on three big questions:

- What kind of ban? Should phones not be allowed at school at all? Or just during class time, leaving lunch and breaks between classes for students to use their phones? Such tradeoffs come with enforcement challenges; it’s more challenging for educators and administrators to police phone usage if phones are allowed at certain times throughout the day.
- Who enforces the ban? Bans imposed at the state level are more uniform, but they might lack the nuance and context of a decision made by specific educators who are closer to students.
- How does it work each day? The mechanics of confiscating or hiding thousands of devices each day can be costly, time-intensive for educators, and logistically complex. In one school in New York ([link removed] ) , teachers and administrators verify that students have their phones in secure pouches made by Yondr ([link removed] ) (cost $15-30 per student), which can only open with magnetized keys. Students are allowed to carry around their Yondr bags, but they can’t access their devices until the end of the day. Other schools use different methods ([link removed] ) : phone safes, baskets, hanging pocket holders, and phone lockers.

Most schools are already doing something. More than 80% of K-12 teachers in the US say their school or district already has a cellphone policy ([link removed] ) .

// When is a ban the right move?

One argument against banning phones in schools goes like this: By banning devices, do we prevent the opportunity for young people to develop a healthy relationship with their devices? Could school be a good forum to learn these skills in real-time?

This question touches on a deeper debate at the heart of the responsible tech movement. How do we balance broad-brush approaches to creating safe and healthy spaces while also giving individuals greater control and agency over their experiences online? But for today’s teens, half of whom ([link removed] ) say they are online “almost constantly,” it’s reasonable to consider school a space where phones should be more restricted.

Long-term, the right approach might be multidimensional and nuanced: working in the short-term to restrict a student’s ability to even access their device during the school day, while working in the long-term to build new technology that gives everyone greater agency control over their digital experience.

In the meantime, more and more students like Schnider will get practice navigating school and building friendships without the help from their phone.

Project Liberty news

// Frequency Blockchain celebrates over 1 million users in partnership with MeWe.

Frequency, a leading blockchain designed to give people control over their online data, privacy, and safety, and MeWe, the pioneering privacy-first social media platform, announced last week that more than one million users are now on the Frequency chain. Built on Project Liberty’s DSNP, Frequency is a Layer 1 blockchain designed to enable individual ownership of personal data and content. Learn more ([link removed] ) .

// DSNP seeks feedback on its draft Governance Framework V.1

During the Ethereum Community Conference in Brussels, experts gathered to discuss governance challenges for decentralized projects. The Blockchain Governance Toolkit ([link removed] ) produced by Project Liberty Institute in collaboration with BlockchainGov was used to guide the workshop discussions. Learn more at DSNP.org ([link removed] ) or join the discussion on the DSNP Forum ([link removed] ) .

Other notable headlines

// 🏫 AI cheating is getting worse, and colleges still don’t have a plan, according to an article in The Atlantic ([link removed] ) .

// 🇫🇷 Telegram’s CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France after a probe into child pornography and drug trafficking on his app, according to an article in Reuters ([link removed] ) .

// 🚨 The race is on to save our online lives from a digital dark age. According to an article in MIT Technology Review ([link removed] ) , archivists are scraping up defunct websites or at-risk data collections to save as much of our digital lives as possible.

// 📝 According to an article in Tech Policy Press ([link removed] ) , the future is analog (if you can afford it). From no-phone teens to homesteading, shunning technology is a new trend that is here to stay.

// 🤖 An article in WIRED ([link removed] ) highlighted how AI ethics nonprofit Humane Intelligence and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology are launching a series of contests to get more people to probe for problems in generative AI systems.

// 📱 Teens are making thousands by debating Trump vs. Harris on TikTok. The live battles are netting students up to $7,000 a month, and some are using it to pay college tuition, according to an article in Rest of the World ([link removed] ) .

// 🎨 An article in Gizmodo ([link removed] ) featured an artist on a quest to become one with AI. For the last year, Avital Meshi has tested how closely she can integrate with OpenAI's technology, becoming its body and its voice.

Partner news & opportunities

// DRC releases paper on personhood credentials

The Decentralization Research Center ([link removed] ) released a paper exploring "personhood credentials" ([link removed] ) as a solution to the growing challenge of balancing online anonymity with trustworthiness. With contributions from leading organizations such as OpenAI, Harvard, and Microsoft, the paper addresses the need for new tools to counter AI-driven deception.

// MAMA’s Expert Insights Series: Social Media as a Public Health Crisis

Virtual, September 12 at 7PM ET

Mothers Against Media Addiction ([link removed] ) (MAMA) is hosting an Expert Insights Series event featuring NYC Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, who recently declared social media a public health crisis. Join MAMA founder Julie Scelfo in a virtual conversation with the Commissioner to explore the implications of social media on public health. Get your free ticket here ([link removed] ) .

// Independent Sector launches Nonprofit Coalition Connection

The Independent Sector ([link removed] ) is launching the Nonprofit Coalition Connection ([link removed] ) , a resource designed to support coalition building and advocacy engagement across the nonprofit sector. Register your coalition here ([link removed] ) .

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/ Project Liberty is leading a movement of people who want to take back control of their lives in the digital age by reclaiming a voice, choice, and stake in a better internet.

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