Smartphone policies in schools

A workshop for secondary school teachers

Person writing in notebook with smartphone next to them.

Our digital lives theme

Professional audiences

What’s on offer?

As the UK Government has advised schools to restrict students’ smartphone use, schools around the country are scrambling to find the most effective policies for them. But how do we know what is the best way forward? And what would work best in your school?

The Digital Futures for Children (DFC) centre at LSE invites teachers to a workshop to learn what the evidence says and to explore how such smartphone policies can best be designed from a child rights perspective.

Come and share your experiences and learn from others!

What’s it about?

With the rapid expansion of social media and other attention-demanding products, concerns are growing that children’s mobile access at school (and elsewhere) undermines their academic learning, along with their mental health, social relationships and personal safety. Recently, one in seven countries has introduced policies to limit or prevent pupil access to smartphones at school, and more are debating such policies. Daily media reports show the number of schools adopting increasingly restrictive mobile policies is steadily growing in the UK and abroad.

In response to this, the DFC has published a report bringing together the available evidence entitled: “Smartphone policies in schools: what does the evidence say?”

In this workshop, we invite teachers to:

learn about what the evidence says and what lessons can be drawn.
workshop designing child rights-based smartphone policies which address the needs at their schools.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Who’s leading the event?

Professor Sonia Livingstone, Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE and Director of the DFC.
Dr Kim R. Sylwander, Post-doctoral Researcher at the DFC.
Dr Mariya Stoilova, Post-doctoral Researcher at Department of Media and Communications at LSE and Manager of the DFC.