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Why Schools Ban Phones: What the Evidence Actually Says
Governments ban phones in schools for four main reasons: distraction and lost learning, student mental health, bullying and fights filmed for social media, and teachers' time. The evidence is strongest where bans are actually enforced, which is why the storage method matters as much as the rule.
The distraction data is hard to argue with. In the OECD's PISA 2022 survey, 65 percent of students across OECD countries said they were distracted by their own devices in at least some maths lessons, and 59 percent by other students' devices. Students who spent more than an hour a day on devices for leisure at school scored noticeably lower in maths. In Finland, 41 percent of students reported being distracted by devices in most maths lessons, which was a big part of why Finland changed its law in 2025. Manitoba's government cited research that it can take up to 20 minutes for a student to refocus after a distraction.
On wellbeing, the most cited study comes from Norway. Research by Sara Abrahamsson found that in lower-secondary schools that banned phones, girls' visits to mental-health specialists fell by around 60 percent, bullying fell by more than 40 percent for both girls and boys, and girls' grades improved, with the largest gains for girls from lower-income families. Large surveys point the same way: in the Netherlands, 75 percent of schools reported better concentration after the 2024 ban, and in Brazil, 95 percent of school leaders reported better concentration and 88 percent less conflict and cyberbullying. Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation made phone-free schools, bell to bell, one of its four core recommendations, and many lawmakers cite it.
Not every study agrees. A University of Birmingham study published in 2025, covering 30 English schools and 1,227 pupils, found no difference in wellbeing, sleep or grades between schools with restrictive and permissive policies. The detail matters: restrictive schools only cut school-time phone use by about 40 minutes a day, because many bans were not fully enforced and pupils still used phones heavily outside school. PISA found the same gap, with students in countries with bans still reporting frequent phone use at school. The lesson is that a written ban and an enforced ban are different things.
Lockable pouches close that gap. Students keep their own phone, but it stays locked from the first bell to the last, so the rule enforces itself and teachers stop policing screens. Before The Internet sells lockable phone pouches to schools outright. You pay once, the pouches and unlocking bases belong to the school, and there is no subscription, lease or per-student annual licence. Send us your student numbers and any written quote you already have, and we will beat it.
Frequently asked questions
Do school phone bans improve grades?
Some studies say yes. Norway found grade gains, especially for girls from lower-income families, and the Netherlands and Brazil report better concentration. A 2025 Birmingham study found no effect, but the bans it studied were only partly enforced.
Do school phone bans help mental health?
Norwegian research found girls' visits to mental-health specialists fell about 60 percent and bullying fell more than 40 percent in schools that banned phones. Results elsewhere are mostly from school surveys and are positive but less rigorous.
Why do some phone bans fail?
Usually because they are not enforced. When phones stay in pockets or bags, many students keep using them. Lockable pouches make the rule automatic because the phone stays locked until the end of the day.
Related reading
School phone bans by country · How to roll out phone pouches in a school · Buying vs renting school phone pouches
Written by the team at Before The Internet, a Toronto-based phone-free company that rents lockable phone pouches for events across North America and sells them to schools and venues worldwide, shipping purchases to any country.
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