Schools must limit kids’ use of phones. But parents need courage to go a step further | Opinion

Momentum is building for restrictions on students carrying or using cellphones during the school day.

More than half of states have taken steps to limit phone use in schools, according to KFF, a health-policy research organization. Several Tarrant County school districts have strict classroom-use policies in place, and the county’s top public-health official is calling for more to so. The Legislature is studying the issue and is sure to consider a statewide ban or incentives for districts to restrict phones.

It’s a good start to pushing back against the toxic effects of distraction, cyberbullying and social media obsession for teenagers. But it’s not enough. More parents have to start limiting the effect of devices on their children.

The evidence for doing so is overwhelming. In an open letter calling on school districts and parents to act, Dr. Brian Byrd, Tarrant County’s public-health director, noted evidence of a correlation between social media and depression among adolescents. His warning followed Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath urging lawmakers to pass a sweeping ban on phones in schools.

As the research piles up, it confirms what many of us already know about the effect of smartphones on our own minds. We realize that in less than two decades, these super-computers that we carry everywhere can diminish our attention spans, increase anxiety and dangerously distract from tasks such as driving.

It naturally follows that immature minds will absorb an even greater impact. Add in the pressures created on social media and the cruelty of online bullying that can follow a victim everywhere he or she goes, and phones clearly make the turbulence of adolescence even worse.

There’s also a cost to intellectual growth. When news and information are consumed in short bursts, each distraction shoves out deep thought about anything.

The Atlantic recently published an in-depth report about students entering elite colleges without a grounding in classic literature or even the ability to consume anything more complex than a young-adult novel. Now, that’s about more than cellphones — it’s another indictment of American schools and a culture that is moving away from reading. But surely, the distraction devil is also a factor.

It’s vital that schools take steps to improve the learning environment. There are tradeoffs, of course. Most often mentioned is parents’ desire to reach their children in an emergency — read, a school shooting.

That need, however, is overstated. School shootings are every parent’s horrifying nightmare, but the fear outpaces the statistical rarity of such events. And if a family situation requires reaching a child, parents can contact school officials, as they did for decades.

Parents have long known that too much “screen time” is a bad idea; it’s just that for decades, the screens were limited to TVs and, eventually, video games. So they would do well to set strict limits on phone use, whatever their schools do. Younger children have no need to carry an internet-connected device. And use in the home should come with rules, including daily time limits and of course careful parental attention to the content consumed.

With teenagers, outright bans are probably unrealistic, especially once they drive. But parents can help older children understand the dangers, just as they do when introducing other adult pursuits. Perhaps most importantly, families should foster appreciation for life outside of the handheld device. Exposure to nature, encouragement of reading (books, not Instagram posts) and an appreciation for the dangers of constant distraction will help kids learn to use devices responsibly.

At the public-policy level, we’re not sure we’d go as far as Morath with a statewide ban. School districts can craft their own policies. But all should, and most should be strict.

Those of us who grew up without these devices can clearly see the difference in life with and without them, both good and bad. But we’re at the point now where we’re graduating adults with no sense of how to navigate the world without them.

Parents have to protect children and equip them with skills for getting the most out of them with the least cost, just as they would any other potential excess.