Submitted by Emma Sullivan
Photo by Getty Images on Unsplash
Smartphones and social media can offer educational benefits, but there are concerns they can also harm pupils’ learning and wellbeing. Some countries have banned phones in schools, while others, like England, are only advised to encourage ‘phone-free’ environments. This has led to different approaches, and we know little about the policies schools implement.
We also do not know whether stricter policies change how often digital safeguarding incidents are recorded. By this, we mean concerns involving harm linked to digital activity, such as viewing inappropriate content, sending inappropriate messages, or bullying in online chats.
Using freedom of information requests, we asked 114 schools in England (over 90,000 pupils) for their mobile phone policy and records of digital safeguarding incidents in 2023/2024.
Only 60 out of 114 schools (just over half) had a documented mobile phone policy and these phone policies varied significantly between schools. Digital safeguarding incidents made up about 5% of all recorded safeguarding incidents, but this varied between schools, suggesting differences in how incidents are identified and logged.
We found that schools with smartphone policies reported more digital incidents than those without. Among schools with a policy, more restrictive approaches were linked to more referrals to third-party services (e.g., social services) and incidents on the school premises.
These findings provide the first documented evidence that digital safeguarding incidents are occurring across schools in England but are not being consistently recognised or recorded. Clearer standardised definitions of digital risks and consistent smartphone policies could help schools respond more effectively to the digital harms posed by smartphones.
I’m a parent – what does this mean for me?
As most digital incidents occur outside of school, home routines and expectations around phone use are important. It may be helpful to ask your child’s school about their phone and digital safeguarding policies and use these as a basis for setting consistent boundaries at home (for example, around use during homework). Parents and carers can also talk regularly about digital harms and encourage children to tell a trusted adult if something worrying happens online.
I’m a teacher – what does this mean for me?
These findings suggest that having a phone policy is linked to greater reporting of digital safeguarding issues, regardless of how strict the policy is. It may be helpful to check whether your school’s policy is clear, is applied consistently, and whether digital concerns can be clearly identified and reported. Teachers can also play a key role in helping students to develop ‘digital device self-management skills’ to self-evaluate the risks and benefits of smartphones.