As political leaders debate banning the use of phones and platforms, tensions between teaching digital skills and ensuring safety online may be set to rise
France leads the debate in Europe over banning smartphones and social media access for children
On 11 June 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron voiced his support for implementing a ban on mobile phones for children under 11 and on social media for children under 15. The proposal echoes recommendations from a report issued by an expert panel commissioned by the President that was published in April 2024. The report advocates further restrictions than the President, however, recommending a smartphone ban for children under 13, as well as a ban on “unethical” social media for those under 18. With the passage of France’s SREN bill in April of this year and the introduction of age verification requirements for pornographic content, the country has already emerged as one of the most proactive within the EU on matters related to child safety online. Keen to influence the debate at the regional level, President Macron’s Renaissance party manifesto for the recent European Parliament elections also included a proposal to set the age of “digital majority” at 15 and mandate default parental controls for mobile phones.
Additional efforts to shield children from online harms signal doubts around the effectiveness of online safety regimes
Elsewhere around the world, a rising moral panic about the impacts of social media and more broadly the online environment on child development has driven political debate around potentially banning smartphones or social media. In the UK, the Conservative Party’s 2024 General Election manifesto included a pledge to place guidance banning smartphones in schools on statutory footing, while the Labour Party indicated it would remain open to considering a ban on social media for children. In the US, policymakers have also responded to increasing pressure with both federal and state-level proposals. For example, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy proposed the addition of a warning label for social media sites on the health harms they pose to children. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a leading state-level official on digital regulation, also called for a ban on smartphone use in schools across the state. A similar bill to ban smartphones in primary schools has also been proposed in Ireland, which cites the need to promote the welfare and education of children. Together, these proposals reflect a growing anxiety about the inability of online safety regimes, such as the Online Safety Act in the UK or the Digital Services Act in the EU, to secure digital spaces for children, despite being a primary aim of those laws.
Efforts to keep kids offline stand to complicate if not undermine investments in digital skills learning
In the context of digital inclusion, proposals to ban smartphones in schools or limit social media access based on age appear to be in stark contrast with the long-standing consensus on the importance of digital skills and literacy learning in schools. As political leaders have publicly debated removing technology from school settings, governments and regulators have simultaneously announced plans to improve digital skills learning across a range of educational settings. In the EU, investment through the Digital Europe Programme will support the development of a more advanced and globally competitive workforce in key technology-based industries. In the UK, Ofcom’s release of its renewed media literacy strategy also proposes investments in improving the digital skills of the whole of society, including in the context of more socially-oriented activities such as navigating disinformation online. While some more workforce-oriented programming is easily separated from digital education in primary school settings, other programming, including media literacy, targets a broader range of skills at various levels of education that can be applied in social, political and economic contexts. Attempts to remove or limit access to digital technologies and platforms in educational settings could make teaching a range of digital skills more difficult. Digital literacy could become a more vague and therefore unachievable marker for digital inclusion and global competitiveness if these anxieties result in successful bans.
