Parents, Phones, and the Anxious Generation
Every now and then, a book comes around that actually changes things. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed, and, more recently, Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation. Haidt released his book at just the right time, in March of 2024, as parents and educators everywhere were recognizing that cell phones, social media, and teen mental health were a more problematic combination than we had previously recognized. In the year and a half since the book’s release, the landscape of school policies and phone restrictions has begun to change across the country.
Phones and Schools following The Anxious Generation
Haidt’s exploration of the deleterious effects of cell phones on education and teen mental health spurred conversations at public and private schools across the country. After the buzz generated by Haidt’s best-selling book, teachers’ groups, school boards, and PTAs gathered to reflect on the impact of cell phones on school culture, learning, and teen mental health. These groups contemplated updating their cell phone policies, and within months, schools across the country began placing broader restrictions on cell phone usage. The 2025-2026 school year arrives with millions of students prohibited from using their phones in school and nine states issuing broad restrictions and wholesale bans on cell phones in school. The momentum for this movement is only growing.
I initially became aware of the buzz and impact of this book through my sister’s experience as a private school parent in the DC suburbs. An anonymous donor at her children’s school offered every parent a copy of Haidt’s book if they agreed to read it and attend a discussion about the book. Multiple discussion meetings took place, and parents were broadly supportive of the four key recommendations in the book, which included:
- Delay smartphone ownership until high school
- Delay social media use until 16
- Support phone-free schools
- Shape a phone-free childhood
By June 2024, over a third of the K-8 parents had signed a "Wait Past 8th" pledge, and the headmaster felt empowered to implement a school-wide phone-free policy for the 2024-2025 school year: cell phones would remain locked away in pouches during the school day. According to my nephew and niece, the first phone-free school year came and went without incident, and now they have adapted to the policy.
I live in DeKalb County, GA, where public school administrators ran a phone-free pilot program during the 2024-2025 academic year called “Disconnect to Reconnect.” Eighteen schools participated in the pilot, and collectively they experienced a 17% decrease in student discipline. Following the success of the pilot program, the country has instituted a county-wide cell-phone ban for the 2025-2026 school year. In addition to cell phones, students will be prohibited from bringing “smart watches, headphones, earbuds, and Bluetooth-enabled accessories” into school during the school day. These devices must remain locked in Yondr pouches or stored in secure storage for the duration of the school day.
The wave of phone restrictions has been widespread, covering the whole political spectrum:
- In California, Gov. Newsom signed into law the Phone-Free School Act, which requires “every school district, charter school, and county office of education to adopt a policy limiting or prohibiting the use of smartphones by July 1, 2026.”
- In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued an executive order to establish “bell-to-bell” restrictions on cell phones in all Virginia schools.
- New York City has banned cell phones in public schools, and for the 2025-2026 school year, “personal internet-enabled devices — such as smartphones, tablets, and smart watches — cannot be used during the school day by students.”
- Florida established broad restrictions on cell phones in 2023, as did Indiana in 2024, prior to the publication of Haidt’s book.
- Alabama announced its own statewide ban for the current school year.
- Ohio has effectively banned the use of cell phones with a few carveouts for students with specific health monitoring needs.
- Internationally, Brazil has implemented a nationwide ban, and some 90% of secondary schools in the UK have banned cell phone use.
The momentum for this movement is growing, and more cell phone restrictions are coming to schools across the US.
Exceptions to the total bans
There are some meaningful exceptions to these policies. Some students have medical needs, such as glucose monitoring, mediated by their cell phones; those students with documented health conditions can be granted exceptions. Students with IEPs and 504 plans spelling out their use of digital assistive technology will be able to use their devices in a limited and defined manner.
The fans and critics of the cell phone-free school movement
While students may initially lament the loss of their phones, most parents and the vast majority of educators support these measures. Few proponents anticipate meaningful changes in academic outcomes, test scores, or other measures, but instead are focused on the social and emotional development of our children. Former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for expanded phone-free times in school and petitioned Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms due to their mental health effects on young people.
Teachers (and parents) know how attached students are to their phones. One teacher participating in a focus group noted that students are “just waiting to just get back on their phone. It’s like class time is almost just a pause in between what they really want to be doing, which is getting back onto their phones.” The phone-free policy implemented in her school has made a “huge difference” in removing these powerful magnets of attention. Others argue that a total ban on this technology doesn’t encourage students to regulate their use and may deprive students of “the skills they need to actually navigate this technology.” While that may be true, partial bans are much harder to enforce, and students can always work on their self-regulatory skills outside of the bounds of the school day.
The bigger frame
Our relationship with technology is only growing more complex. Our devices are becoming increasingly embedded in numerous aspects of our lives, and they are designed to keep a tight grip on our attention. Jonathan Haidt has recently been writing about the risks, not of cell phones, but of turning to digital companions for our relationship needs. Our young people will need support navigating these new, uncharted waters. From cell phones to social media and now on to AI, parents must support their children’s development while helping them manage the technologies that will be broadly present in their lives.
Removing cell phones from schools creates a momentary pause in a world replete with digital connection and distraction. It’s by no means a panacea, but it might contribute to a learning environment that will focus more on the human elements of our experience: human connections and attention not mediated by a screen.
