In June, the UK government passed legislation that effectively banned children in England from having phones in school from “bell to bell”. Consequently, schools are making choices on their policy; some are allowing 'brick phones only' on premises. In rare cases, schools are banning all phones. Most are either reinforcing a stricter Not Seen Or Heard policy or they are bringing in storage systems, such as lockers or phone pouches.
The phone pouch option appears to be stealing a march across the UK, with schools spending tens of thousands of pounds on lockable pouches to ‘reclaim the classroom’.
At first glance, it seems like a win. If the phone is harder for children to access, it will be less of a be a distraction, right?
But creating storage systems for smartphones doesn’t solve the underlying problem. Instead, it tries to manage a distraction for six hours before handing the same harmful technology back to the child at the school gates. Additionally, phone pouch systems can quite easily be beaten by students – which is well documented.
Research from HMD’s Better Phone Project highlights the problem*. Over half (54%) of parents say they wished they had waited longer to give their child a smartphone and nearly two-thirds (65%) have concerns about their child’s phone use and impact on their mental health. Worryingly, nearly half said it had changed their child’s personality.
It’s time to stop asking how to hide smartphones and start asking why children have unrestricted, adult-grade technology in their pockets in the first place.
Brain drain
The primary argument for pouches is they stop the scrolling during school hours. However, research suggests the mere presence of a smartphone, even if it is turned off and tucked inside a pouch, drains a student's brainpower.
A study from the University of Texas at Austin, found that students’ cognitive capacity can drop by as much as 10-20% simply by having a phone nearby. The brain has to work overtime to not think about the device, leaving less energy for memory and attention tasks.
“Storing smartphones doesn’t prevent harm,” says Guy Holder, a teacher with 20 years’ experience and co-founder of Set@16, a campaign initiative aimed at delaying teen use of smartphones and social media. “Schools should instead normalise brick phones as the only devices allowed on-site. This is a zero-cost move that ensures safeguarding and real-life engagement.”
At Xplora, we believe allowing smartphones in schools, even in a pouch, means we are forcing children to use some of their mental resources to resist the siren call of their digital lives and resume the bad habits as soon as they leave the school gates.
False sense of security
Kitty Hamilton, co-founder of Set@16, argues that the pouch policy offers a false sense of security for both parents and educators.
“Most harms happen out of school. Removing the smartphone only in school hours doesn't stop cyberbullying, safeguarding or social media pressures beyond the school gate. For example, children will still arrive at school tired and distracted because they've been on their smartphones late into the night. Schools will still be left picking up the fallout from the night before. The issue needs to be addressed 24/7, not just bell to bell. XploraOne allows parents and children enough technology for communication without all the complications caused by access to social media and smartphones. It keeps children connected, not addicted."
Xplora chief marketing officer, Lise af Ekenstam, concurs: “There’s a global movement taking place to be a lot more considered, sensible, and selective in the type of technology we give our children. Bans on children being allowed to access smartphones in schools don’t solve the problem; they just push the addiction, the scrolling, and the bullying are still happening at home, on the journey to and from school, at the school gate. It’s about controlling the access itself.”
Financial drain for schools
But it’s not just in safeguarding pupils where pouches fall down.
Holder argues that they’re also a financial drain for schools. “Schools are panicking and being pushed to ‘pouching’, which costs thousands of pounds to set up and committing to an annual charge of thousands of pounds.”
“During a time when education budgets are tightly squeezed, schools are seemingly giving money away to private tech companies for pouches that categorically aren’t protecting children from the harms of smartphones anyway.”
It’s an argument that Charlotte Ashton, journalist and co-founder of Generation Focus, agrees with. “I think it’s a terrible waste of money to accommodate devices that we know harm children. It embeds the status quo rather than solving the problem.”
What is the alternative?
We understand the dilemma. Parents want to be able to call their children after school, and children want to feel connected to their peers. But there is a middle ground between ‘no tech’ and ‘adult tech’.
Time for real change
Schools, legislators and parents must evolve. We need to move away from phone pouches and toward endorsing hardware that actually protects childhood.
Jane Rowland, co-founder of SafeScreens, agrees that pouch systems will only continue to perpetuate a bigger problem. “What they do is normalise the smartphone in childhood, which is what I think we all want to get away from.”
The goal shouldn't be to lock away the problem for a few hours. The goal should be to provide our children with the tools they need to grow, learn and communicate safely, without the weight of the entire internet in their pockets.
Let’s stop managing the distraction. Let’s start reclaiming childhood.
*Based on a study commissioned by HMD and conducted by Perspectus Global. 10,092 parents were interviewed, across 5 different countries: the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Germany and Australia.
XploraOne: a ‘startphone’ designed for children
Xplora has developed the XploraOne as a ‘startphone’. It’s designed specifically for children, providing simple connectivity and safety features parents need without the ‘big three’ harms:
- No internet browser.
- No social media.
- No addictive apps.
XploraOne has a touch screen and a qwerty keyboard, along with a torch, calculator, alarm and other functions that are helpful. Crucially, it has a built-in GPS, which we know is a vital reassurance for some parents, and is limited to a white list of 50 contacts that have to be approved by parents.
