Mental health effects of cell phone use considered in ban proposals

Lawmakers in Massachusetts are moving forward with a bill to ban cell phone use during the school day. ”

More than half-a-dozen proposals currently sit on Beacon Hill. The Joint Education Committee redrafted legislation combining seven different Senate bills including legislation supported by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

In a statement, Senate President Karen Spilka and Joint Education Chair Senator Jason Lewis, described the cell phone as “one of the most distracting devices ever created.”

They called them, “major barriers to student growth and achievement in the classroom,” adding, “They make it harder for our talented educators to teach.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 77% of U.S. public schools prohibit students from using cell phones during class and 29 states have policies to ban or restrict cell phone use in schools.

Half the states have existing laws with action expected on bills in New York and Oklahoma.

In May, Connecticut Rep. Jennifer Leeper (D), co-chair of the General Assembly’s Education Committee, called phones “a cancer on our kids…driving isolation, loneliness, decreasing attention, and having major impacts both on social-emotional well-being but also learning.”

With a ban pending in Massachusetts, other New England states are taking measures.

This year, New Hampshire passed a law requiring schools to adopt policies that prohibit student use of cell phones and other personal communication devices, with exceptions for medical, disability, or language needs.

Maine requires school districts to create a policy by August 2026, with some already implementing bans.

Campbell said banning cell phones in Massachusetts schools is a commitment to both young peoples’ education and their mental health.

“A bell-to-bell phone free school policy keeps students focused throughout the full school day,” she noted. “This includes instructional time, as well as passing periods, lunch, and other non-instructional time.”

The Massachusetts Senate version of the legislation allows each school district to develop its own plan for regulating cell phone use and present it to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for approval.

Gov. Maura Healey supports a “bell-to-bell” ban and called for other options for parents to contact their children during the school day.

She said distraction-free learning sets up students for success, supports parents and teachers, and protects the mental health of young people.

Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) President Max Page said discussions about banning cell phones in schools have existed for years.

He referred to research about the devices’ detrimental effects and pointed to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book ,“The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” saying it helped bring the issue “to prominence.”

Page, who calls cell phones in schools, “prevalent and problematic,” said the organization is aligned with the movement. Feedback from the MTA’s 117,000 members says phones distract from both learning and social life in schools.

Page said one major negative is the rising number of fights “influenced by or get expanded by videotaping on phones.”

Although a cell phone ban will not solve behavioral issues, he believes their availability contributes to them.

“I am always wary of magic solutions, single solutions that will solve everything,” Page noted. “We have addressed student mental health and this is just one component. It is an important piece of a much larger problem.”