Outright smartphone bans in schools are likely to be ineffective and undermine students’ trust without addressing core issues like harmful online content, cyberbullying and addictive platform design, a new UCL report finds. The study found a consensus across students, parents and teachers recognising the distraction and disruption smartphones can cause in the classroom, but disagreement over how it should be addressed. It concluded that outright bans do not have young people’s buy-in, and