Report launch: Smartphone free schools?

This event marks the publication of Smartphone Free Schools? Platforming Pupil Voice: A Student-Centred Digital Use Framework.

As debates surrounding smartphone bans continue to shape educational policy and public discourse in the UK and internationally, this report centres the voices of students themselves.

Drawing on research with 732 students (aged 11–18), 27 educational professionals, and 41 parents, the report champions pupil voice and offers a framework for managing statutory banning. It also highlights some of the risks and harms that restrictive smartphone policies can create, alongside practical recommendations for mitigating these impacts.

The project examines how smartphone policies are experienced in practice, how young people navigate digital wellbeing and safety, and what a more student-centred framework for digital use in schools might look like.

With funding from UCL Grand Challenges.

Speakers

• Jessica Ringrose — Professor, Sociology of Gender and Education, UCL Institute of Education
• Dawn Aytoun — Programme Manager, Life Lessons
• Edith Rodda — PhD Candidate, Sociology and Social Media, UCL Institute of Education
• Harry Dyer — Associate Professor in Education, University of East Anglia
• Andy Phippen — Professor of IT Ethics and Digital Rights, Bournemouth University
• Tony Sampson — Reader, Management and Marketing, University of Essex
• Andy Burrows — CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation

Related links

• About the project: Smartphone Free Childhoods?
• Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity
• Department of Education, Practice and Society

Image

Edith Rodda.