Calling all parents! Calling all parents? Are you one of the many adults who have been foolish enough to give your child a “smart” phone? Do you understand the damage you are doing to your children by allowing your children to have these addictive, radiation-emitting devices? Isn’t it time to learn the facts?
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Mental health concerns drove New York City’s decision this week to ban city schoolchildren from using cellphones.
David Banks, chancellor of the nation’s largest public school system serving more than 900,000 kids, said doctors concerned about smartphone addiction and other harms connected to social media apps kids access on their phones had advised the city to make the move.
The city plans to issue detailed rules early next month, our Madina Touré reports from New York.
“Our kids are fully addicted to these phones,” Banks said in an interview on NY1. “We’ve got to do something about it.”
Why it matters: The ban in New York comes amid a nationwide movement to curb phone use in schools and growing worry about how smartphones affect children.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote in a New York Times op-ed last week that social media is so harmful to kids that Congress should force apps to include warning labels like those required on cigarettes and alcohol.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, vowed last week to limit smartphone use during the school day. The school board in Los Angeles — the country’s second-biggest school district — also recently approved restrictions that will go into effect in January. And in Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed a similar measure into law.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul — a Democrat who recently signed a bill that would require social media platforms to turn off personalized recommendation systems for pupils — also plans to propose legislation that would prohibit smartphones in schools statewide.
Overseas, France has long banned smartphones for kids in middle school and younger, and the U.K. is considering a ban.