Smartphones Aren't a Smart Choice in Middle School
In this opinion piece for CNN, physician and Screenagers filmmaker Delaney Ruston argues that U.S. middle schools should keep phones out of students' hands during the school day, pointing to France's then-new nationwide ban on in-school phone use for students 15 and under. Ruston cites a survey her own team ran of more than 1,200 U.S. middle-school parents, in which a majority reported their child's school allowed phone use throughout the day even though most parents said they preferred stricter limits. She also notes that the brain regions involved in impulse control are still developing in early adolescence, which she argues makes classroom self-regulation around phones especially hard for middle schoolers. TechKids Foundation cites this piece as an example of a physician-advocate translating her own survey data into a specific school-policy argument.
Ruston writes that in her team's survey of parents who had seen or followed Screenagers, 55% said their child's middle school allowed cell phone use, with public schools more likely to allow it than private schools.
The same survey found more than 80% of responding parents said they did not want their kids using cell phones during the school day, which Ruston frames as a mismatch between policy and parent preference.
Ruston, Delaney. "Smartphones aren't a smart choice in middle school." CNN Opinion, Dec. 22, 2017.