{"id":751184,"date":"2026-08-27T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751184\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T08:00:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:00:12","slug":"smartphones-could-become-illegal-in-ni-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/751184\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphones could become illegal in NI schools"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were also “negligible changes” in the well-being of pupils who took part in the mobile phone pouch pilot, though there was “some decrease in self-reported anxiety and depression symptoms,” according to the study.<\/p>\n

The research team from KCL called on teachers and school staff to restrict their own smartphone use in school in order to be role models for pupils.<\/p>\n

They also said that schools should consider letting older pupils use their phones more for study.<\/p>\n

Stephen Moore, the principal of one of the schools in the study, said their school-wide ban had encouraged “young people to interact with each other”.<\/p>\n

“I think there are very few schools that implement a ban on phones and then go back to having phones,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think the benefits far outweigh any disadvantages there might be.”<\/p>\n

Moore added: “I think pupils have been quite receptive to the new rule and we’ve certainly encouraged them to interact with adults and sort problems out for themselves.”<\/p>\n

Smartphone use in schools has been described by some principals as the “most serious issue facing schools in a generation”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One head teacher said smartphone use was “affecting the development of children’s brains as well as their well-being”.<\/p>\n

And over recent years, individual schools have introduced policies on the matter; many ban phones during class time and require parents to call reception if they need to contact their children.<\/p>\n

Some have expressly banned smartwatches and smart glasses too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were also “negligible changes” in the well-being of pupils who took part in the mobile phone pouch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-751184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-mobile","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}