Approaches to children’s smartphone and social media use must go beyond bans

Children commonly use their smartphones to access social media, play games, and interact with others, accounting for the majority of overall screen use, particularly in the 8-17 age group.1 Most recently, banning or restricting children’s (under age 182) access to smartphones and social media has grasped the attention of policy makers, schools, and parents. Several countries, including France, Turkey, Norway, Sweden, as well as regions of the US and Canada, have introduced laws, policies, or guidance for schools to ban or heavily restrict the use of phones in schools.3 In Australia, new legislation prohibits social media use for children under age 16. In the US, the surgeon general called for warning labels on social media apps.4 Such restrictions lie within broader narratives that smartphones and social media are not safe environments for children. Moreover, bans are responses to increased public pressure to mitigate the potential harmful effects of smartphones and social media on health, wellbeing, and other associated outcomes—for example, academic performance, disruptive behaviours, and bullying.5

There are, however, no simple, one-size-fits-all answers. Although many policy makers, schools, and parents are primed to believe arguments that smartphones and social media are inherently harmful, the evidence about their overall effect on children is not clear cut.67 Smartphone bans have the advantage of being immediately actionable and relatively straightforward to enforce. However, despite positive anecdotal data, we do not have the evidence to establish the types of bans that are effective and what works best for children of different ages.89 A recent evaluation of school smartphone policies in England reported that restricted smartphone use in schools …