Phone bans in schools- new OCO research shows why one size doesn’t fit all

The Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) published One Size Does Not Fit All– a report on phone bans in schools and children’s rights with the OCO’s Youth Advisory Panel (YAP). As well as presenting the views of young people on the phone ban in schools, the report brings together key national and international research from a children’s rights perspective on this issue.

The OCO has found that blanket bans on phones in schools are not in the best interest of children, nor are they an effective way of protecting children’s rights from the potential harmful impacts of phones and social media. Instead, the OCO is calling on the Government to consider the impact on children’s rights, including their right to have a voice, as well as the diversity of individual schools and students and the age and maturity levels of children when rules around phones are being designed. Importantly the report illustrates why we need to move beyond an oversimplistic focus on bans to an approach that supports children to competently and confidently navigate the digital world, and that addresses root causes of the challenges children face online. The OCO makes five recommendations, which it hopes will be used by policy makers to guide decision making on this issue.

Commenting on the report, the OCO’s head of policy, Dr Tricia Keilthy said:

“Phones play a such big part in young people’s lives; it’s how they communicate with each other and share content online and so any decision to ban phones in schools is going to have an equally big impact.

“It is completely understandable that parents, teachers and indeed Government would have concerns about the negative impact of phones at school, but a blanket ban is not the way to mitigate this risk.

“Our report, One Size Does Not Fit All, highlights that this is a much more nuanced issue and that the decision to ban phones in schools doesn’t take children’s views- or indeed their rights- into account.

“We held consultations with 29 young people on our YAP, all aged between 13 and 17, to get their views and insight on the ban.

“The YAP told us that banning phones at school can have just as negative an impact on their rights as the phones themselves, and that phones have many other uses at school other than just communication. They told us, for example, how they use their phones to learn, stay informed, look after their health, and even connect with their culture, language and beliefs.

“The young people also describe how they have not had a say in the decision to ban phones nor have their views been taken into account.

“The message from young people is clear – we must move beyond talk of bans and adopt a more holistic, evidence based and creative approach to addressing the problems that phone use creates and often exacerbates, both in schools and beyond the school gates. In practice this will mean empowering students through a standalone digital literacy programme and creating safe spaces online by strengthening the regulation of online service providers.

“It is also vital that parents and teachers are better supported around the whole use of technology so they can in turn better support the students around these issues.”

ENDS

Read the report in full here, OCO Smartphone Ban Full Report  and our Youth Friendly version OCO Smartphone Ban Youth Friendly Report

• 10 September 2025
• Type: Press Release