Screen time

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School phone bans may seem like the answer to reeling in young people’s technology use. But if we ban phones and bury this issue under the sand, when and how do our kids learn to have a healthy relationship with technology in a world becoming more tech-focused by the day?

Existing bans in Australian schools

• Victoria has banned mobile phones in both primary and secondary schools since term 1 of 2020.
• South Australia is transitioning to a ban in all public high schools by term 3 of 2023.
• New South Wales will ban them in public high school schools in October, as part of a flagship election policy from the incoming Minns government.

Talk of a national approach

• Last week federal Education Minister Jason Clare called for a national approach, saying he will meet with state and territory counterparts in the middle of 2023 to discuss and encourage this.
• I think the time has come for a national approach to the banning or the restriction on the use of mobile phones by students in schools.
• I think the time has come for a national approach to the banning or the restriction on the use of mobile phones by students in schools.

Students need to be included in this

• not make the decision on our own; talk to parents, talk to principals, talk to teachers about what’s the best approach to take.
• Scenes of school phone bans gone wrong are all over TikTok, with footage of Australian students breaking open pouches often purchased by schools to lock phones away.

It is easy to see why bans are popular

• Banning mobile phones is popular with some parents, as it seems like the obvious answer to young people’s problematic technology use.
• But this popularity in part is underpinned uncertainty on how to control children’s technology use.
• Parents often resort to confiscating phones at home when they don’t know how to control children’s use of technology.

What are adults doing?

• However rather than pointing the finger at the kids, let’s consider what’s happening with the adult population and mobile phones.
• Adults use their phones all the time, especially in places they should not be.
• As adults we find it very difficult to cope with mobile phone bans.

Where’s the evidence this will work?

• One 2022 Spanish study did attempt to say bans had led to better academic results.
• But in careful reading of the study, students were permitted to use phones in schools as a learning tool for educational purposes.
• Policies need to be made using evidence, and right now we don’t really have any.

• This has led parents, guardians, teachers and researchers to wonder whether screens are good or bad for children.
• The World Health Organization recommends that school-going children (five-17 years) limit their recreational screen time.
• Read more: Why screen time for babies, children and adolescents needs to be limited
  Thirdly, establish boundaries around screen time.
• As much as possible, involve children and adolescents in conversations about why a healthy balance of screen time will benefit them.

• BOSTON, April 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Tear Film & Ocular Surface Society (TFOS), a world leader in eye health research and education, announced their new global Workshop report, entitled "A Lifestyle Epidemic: Ocular Surface Disease," which will be published this quarter in The Ocular Surface journal.
• The World Health Organization indicates that eye problems are increasingly linked to lifestyle choices.1 "Lifestyle defines the way in which a person lives.
• "This new TFOS Report focuses on the direct and indirect impacts that everyday lifestyle choices and challenges have on ocular surface health – from screen time, to our beauty routines, to our nutrition, to where we live," stated Amy Gallant Sullivan, Executive Director, TFOS.
• "This TFOS Lifestyle Workshop report involved 158 experts from 38 countries around the world, required almost three years to complete, and was committed to an evidence-based approach and a process of open communication, dialogue and transparency, in order to achieve a consensus concerning lifestyle choices and ocular surface disease," concluded David A. Sullivan, PhD, Founder, TFOS.