Los Angeles education officials are moving to completely ban students from using smartphones and social media during class.
Los Angeles education officials voted Tuesday to work toward a total ban on smartphone use in the city’s schools.
The move comes amid growing concern about the impact on young people’s mental health, as the governor of California, the nation’s most populous state, has said he supports regulating the devices.
The Los Angeles Unified School Board, which oversees the nation’s second-largest school district, has ordered officials to develop a plan to ban cellphone and social media use during school hours.
“Schools that have already implemented cell phone free days are reporting incredible results – kids are happier, they talk to each other more and they perform better academically,” said school board member Nick Melvoin, who proposed the ban.
“So I think this is an idea whose time has really come.”
The resolution cited studies showing that excessive cell phone use is associated with increased stress, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, feelings of aggression and suicidal thoughts among adolescents.
Eliminating cell phone and social media use during the day has been shown to improve performance on standardized tests and final exams, with the gains being “equivalent to one additional hour of instruction per week.”
The LAUSD vote, which affects 600,000 students, came after the U.S. Surgeon General, the nation’s top doctor, called for social media platforms to be labeled with warning labels for contributing to the mental health crisis.
“Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media are at double the risk of experiencing anxiety and depression,” Dr. Vivek Murthy wrote in an opinion piece in the New York Times.
“As of summer 2023, the average daily usage time for this age group was 4.8 hours,” he noted.
Hours before LAUSD voted on a resolution directing officials to come up with a plan within the next four months, California Gov. Gavin Newsom doubled down on a statewide effort to crack down on smartphone use among schoolchildren.
“As the Surgeon General has categorically stated, social media is harming the mental health of young people,” he said.
“When children and teens are in school, they should be focusing on their studies, not on screens.”
A bill under consideration in the California Assembly would require school districts to take measures to ban or limit students’ cell phone use while at school.
“I look forward to working with state legislators to limit smartphone use during the classroom,” said Newsom, a father of four.
Florida, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Newsom’s chief rival, banned cellphone use for students last year.
Similar plans are underway in Oklahoma, Kansas, Vermont, Ohio, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.
© 2024 AFP
Source: Los Angeles to ban smartphones in schools (June 19, 2024) Retrieved June 19, 2024 https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-los-angeles-smartphone-school.html
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