Two years after school phone bans were implemented in Australia, what has changed?

1 day ago

Phone bans are now well-established in many Australian primary and secondary schools.Have they made a difference?Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWhen Australian Christian College, a high school in the Melbourne outer suburb of Casey, implemented a phone ban on its campus, there were multiple reasons for the crackdown.Peer conflicts between students were escalating online, students were struggling to focus and teachers observed “notification-driven code-switching” in their students.“When a phone is within reach, a student’s mind is only ever half in the room,” the school’s principal, Caleb Peterson, says.“We wanted their whole attention back.

”School mobile phones bans typically mandate that mobile devices are kept in bags or lockers during the school day and confiscated on sight and stored in the school office until the end of the day,This month marks two years of phone bans being in operation in most Australian states,Victoria moved early, banning phones in public primary and secondary schools in 2020,By term four, 2023, Western Australia Tasmania, New South Wales and South Australia had followed suit; Queensland restricted phones in term one, 2024,The announcement of the bans were lauded by parents and politicians, many of whom believed blocking access to phones would enhance focus and minimise distractions, while some experts were sceptical about their effectiveness.

Now, two years on, what has actually happened in Australia’s phone-free schools?“The impacts were clear,” says Peterson.“Since the ban, we’ve seen stronger lesson starts, fewer interruptions and better flow in teaching.Device-driven conflicts have fallen and recess and lunch look different now, [there are] more games, conversations and positive student-staff interactions.It’s the kind of atmosphere you actually want for young people.”One year after the ban was implemented, a survey of almost 1,000 public school principals led by the NSW Department of Education’s Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation found that 95% of principals still supported the ban.

Eighty-one per cent said the ban has improved students’ learning, 86% said it has improved socialisation among students and 87% believed students were less distracted in the classroom.Research from South Australia – released in March this year – revealed 70% of teachers reported increased focus and engagement during learning time and 64% of teachers reported “a lower frequency of critical incidents” at school as a result of device use.Ruqayah, who graduated from a western Sydney high school in 2024, thinks the bans were an “overreaction”.After going through high school with access to phones, she finished her final year with the phone ban in place and says fellow students were still finding ways to use them in secret.“Teenagers find their phones very important,” she says.

“It makes them feel secure and safe, so taking away something that is important to them just causes more stress and more worry which makes situations worse at school and harder for teachers, supervisors [and] support workers to deal with.”However, anecdotal conversations with other students and staff at both public and private schools shows widespread belief the bans have had a positive impact.One high school teacher, who did not wish to be named, says the mere presence of phones in the classroom could be distracting, even if they were not used.“They just present an opportunity,” she says.“We do see a difference without them.

”Some students feel the bans levelled the school playing field,Amy, a year 11 student from a western Sydney public high school, says the removal of phones from classrooms has limited people’s ability to cheat while also offering social benefits for those who she said were “chronically online”,“Students [are more comfortable] as it creates safe space and they’re not worried about a photo of them being sent around,” she says,Mariam, a year 11 student at a public high school in southern Sydney, says although the students at her school found the phone ban to be “unreasonable” and felt that teachers “sometimes used the ban as a way to abuse their power”, she believed it had a positive impact on her learning,Aisha, a year 11 student from a private Islamic school in western Sydney, says the phone bans at her school helped her “gain a longer attention span and perform better at school”.

This increased focus is something that Dr Tony Mordini, the principal of Melbourne high school, a selective public school, has seen first-hand.Melbourne high adopted a phone ban policy in January 2020 in compliance with the Victorian Department of Education’s directive.“From a professional perspective, the ban has had a clear positive impact,” he says.“Students are more focused during lessons, and we’ve seen a reduction in distractions caused by online activity.The absence of phones has also significantly reduced opportunities for in-class cyberbullying or harassment.

”But Mordini says the phone bans have also meant fewer opportunities for students,“It’s important to acknowledge what we’ve lost,” he says,“Phones can be incredibly powerful learning tools – capable of storing large amounts of content, supporting research, taking photos, creating videos and hosting useful apps,Their absence means we’ve had to rely more on school-provided devices and traditional resources,”Sign up to Breaking News AustraliaGet the most important news as it breaksafter newsletter promotion“We were told that phone bans would reduce cyberbullying, increase students’ concentration in class and relieve teachers of having to discipline students over phone misuse,” says Prof Neil Selwyn from the School of Education, Culture and Society at Monash University.

“Some politicians were promising improvements in student learning and mental health.But one of the main drivers of these bans was undoubtedly that they were popular.”He says schools can be a proxy for broader concerns about children and their use of devices, but he’s sceptical about schools being the best approach.“Young people spend way more time outside school, so really we should be talking about how parents and families regulate their children’s device use at home,” he says.“Unfortunately, this isn’t something that most politicians want to do.

So, school phone bans are a relatively pain-free way for people to feel that they are doing something about the wider problems we have with excessive digital device use.”Selwyn says phone bans in Australia were not set up “with the intention of properly testing their effectiveness” and says concrete research in this area is “inconclusive, and … not particularly rigorous”.He also believes the latest government data from NSW and South Australia is “not particularly insightful”.“The key question is how these bans play out over time,” he says.“Claiming that these bans are suddenly leading to dramatic improvements makes for a neat political soundbite, but we need a lot more in-depth and sustained investigation of what effects these bans are actually having.

“We need to do a lot better than simply asking principals whether they think students’ learning has improved.In particular, we need to go into classrooms and talk with students and teachers about their different experiences with the bans and what they think would be beneficial going forward.”He cites a recent UK research from 30 schools and more than 1,200 students which “found no significant differences for students attending schools with smartphone bans in terms of their mental wellbeing, sleep, education performance in English and maths or even disruptive classroom behaviour”.“You will find some studies which point out correlations between phone bans and improvements in learning, but these cannot be seen as providing reliable evidence of direct causal relationships,” he says.“It is naive to think that a phone ban is going to directly and significantly shift the dial on any of these issues in and by itself.

”Peterson says he’s careful not to “oversell” the bans, but says they are about “creating conditions where learning and friendships can actually thrive”.While his school has made exemptions for medical management, disability support or assistive and translation apps, he believes academic flow is stronger, conflicts rarer and social cohesion better.“Wellbeing data” at his school has shown “reductions in psychological distress”.“Phone bans aren’t a silver bullet,” he says.“But they are a critical lever, especially when paired with digital citizenship, mental-health promotion and positive playground programs.

”Peterson says many students have suggested the ban gives them “a break”,“The phone ban is now simply the norm and the gains are real, modest and worth it,”

politicsSee all

Why Britain’s climate and defence strategies need to be better integrated | Letter

Your article (National security threatened by climate crisis, UK intelligence chiefs due to warn, 8 October) exposed the dangerous disconnect between climate policy and defence. It raises vital questions about Britain’s – and the world’s – readiness to face the security threats posed by the climate crisis, none of which can be met if leaders keep treating climate and defence as separate issues.This summer, wildfires linked to climate change brought Europe to its knees, wreaking economic havoc, overwhelming health systems and draining military resources. All over the world, climate breakdown is fuelling instability, conflict and displacement. The EU’s failure to break free from Moscow’s pipelines is jeopardising its energy sovereignty

about 11 hours ago

Swinney says Scottish government will sponsor visas for foreign care workers

John Swinney has said the Scottish government will help hundreds of overseas care workers stay in the UK, as he attacked Westminster for its rising hostility to immigrants.The first minister said it was unfair Scotland’s older people had to “pay the price for Westminster’s prejudice”, and that his devolved government would sponsor visa applications for workers needed to staff care homes, at a cost of about £500,000.Swinney described the UK government’s decision to greatly restrict access to visas for those jobs, in an effort to respond to rising tensions over mass migration, as deeply damaging.“Thousands of care workers here in the UK entirely legally have been left high and dry, unable to work, while care homes are crying out for staff,” he told the Scottish National party’s annual conference in Aberdeen. “In what world does that make any sense?”Swinney told delegates the measure was further evidence Scotland’s interests were being damaged by continued membership of the UK, as he confirmed he would make a fresh push for independence central to Scottish parliament elections next year

about 12 hours ago

Families of David Amess and Jo Cox voice concern at rise in violent political rhetoric

The families of the murdered MPs David Amess and Jo Cox have voiced concern about a recent surge in violent political rhetoric in Britain.While the fatal attack on a synagogue in Manchester and targeting of Muslims have placed a renewed spotlight on violent antisemitism and Islamophobia, there are also concerns over an increasing normalisation of language calling for political figures to be killed.Examples include the suspension of a Reform UK councillor linked to a social media account calling for Keir Starmer to be shot and the arrest of a man allegedly captured on film at major far-right rally last month in London threatening to kill the prime minister. At the same rally, Elon Musk made comments that later drew condemnation from Downing Street when he told the crowd that “violence is coming”.The language comes after a summer of anti-immigration protests, culture war flashpoints and a surge in podcasts and YouTube videos predicting civil war

about 14 hours ago

Reform UK abandoning manifesto pledge of £90bn in tax cuts, deputy leader admits

Reform UK’s deputy leader has admitted the party cannot deliver the £90bn in tax cuts promised in its manifesto, saying it would concentrate on public spending cuts once in government.Richard Tice said key election pledges such as lifting the income tax threshold would be an “aspiration” and that once in government Reform would concentrate on cutting the civil service and scrapping net zero.Reform’s leader, Nigel Farage, is said to be planning a speech next month to overhaul the party’s economic policy – which Labour and the Conservatives see as a key weakness. The Times reported that Farage would promise to reduce spending before reducing taxes.Farage has previously said he expected to make £350bn worth of spending cuts over the course of the parliament – the equivalent of axing the whole schools budget every year or wiping out a third of NHS funding annually

about 16 hours ago

UK charities say toxic immigration rhetoric leading to threats against staff

Charities have warned of growing racial abuse, intimidation and threats of violence towards their staff and beneficiaries amid increasingly toxic rhetoric around immigration and race by politicians and extremist activists.Voluntary organisations say they are being forced to introduce extensive security measures to protect staff and property – a trend described by one charity head as in danger of becoming the “new normal” – after being targeted.Refugee and asylum seeker charities, Muslim, Jewish and ethnic minority organisations, women’s groups, youth bodies, homelessness charities and even charity shops have reported being subject to violence, threats and abuse.Incidents include threats to rape and kill staff, verbal and physical abuse of beneficiaries on the street, attempted break-ins to charity-owned accommodation, and damage to offices and vandalism, including anti-migrant and racist graffiti.Charities were being “targeted because of what they stand for and who they support”, said Saskia Konynenburg, executive director at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations

about 21 hours ago

Post-ministerial jobs watchdog closes as part of UK government ethics shake-up

The much-criticised watchdog that scrutinises the jobs UK ministers can take after leaving office will be formally scrapped on Monday as part of a wider shake-up of the ethics structure in government.The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), described by critics as fundamentally toothless, has been closed, a Cabinet Office announcement said, with its functions taken over by two existing regulators.At the same time, a new organisation called the Ethics and Integrity Commission will oversee the work of a series of other regulators, the centrepiece of what Keir Starmer has promised will be a robust new approach to government and to any ministerial misdeeds.Also from Monday, a previously announced ban on severance payments for ministers who lose their job after a serious breach of the ministerial code comes into force.In the change, first revealed by the Guardian in July, former ministers who take up new jobs in a serious breach of the rules for post-government appointments could be asked to hand back any severance payment

1 day ago

trendingSee all