The school district prohibits cell phones. Social Media

America’s second largest school district bans cell phones and social media

By Movieguide® Contributor

The Los Angeles Unified School District board voted Tuesday to ban social media and cellphones for students.

The vote, affecting the second largest school district in the US, passed 5-2.

The ban comes just one day after “U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy called for an immediate warning label on social media platforms in a New York Times op-ed, similar to the warnings on cigarette packages mandated by Congress in the 1960s”. Good Morning America reported Tuesday.

A teacher in the district who advocated for passage of the vote said teachers face an “uphill battle” when trying to reduce teen phone use.

“Managing student smartphone use as a classroom teacher is now more like running a non-stop marathon. It takes a lot of energy and it’s really hard to keep up,” said high school math teacher Jessica Quindel.

This fight comes despite the fact that phone use by the district’s 429,000 students has already been banned during class and social media use has been limited to “educational purposes” only.

“The school district will now be required to develop and submit updated cell phone and social media policies within 120 days or by the fall semester, which would prohibit students until the spring semester of the 2024-2025 school year from using cell phones mobile and social media platforms during the school day,” GMA said.

“LAUSD cited possible tactics such as locked bags, cell phone lockers or technological means and promised that the policies would be ‘informed by best practices and input from subject matter experts, working partners, staff, students and parents.’” GMA reported.

Policy makers will consider those who depend on their phones for things like translation.

“The youth mental health crisis is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor,” Murthy wrote Monday.

He reported that statistics from last summer showed that teenagers spent an average of five hours a day on social media and had high rates of anxiety and depression.

Murthy told GMA that his proposed social media warning label would have to win approval from Congress. It would appear as a digital tag, seen regularly on social media.

“The exact design of it, the frequency with which it occurs — all of that would be determined in a scientific testing process that we would undergo after Congress would authorize the label,” Murthy said. “That’s what we’re doing with tobacco and alcohol labels, and the good news about labels is that, fortunately, we know from experience that these labels actually work. In the case of tobacco labels, they are effective in raising awareness and changing behaviour.”

In 2023, Florida banned phone use in public school classrooms. Connecticut’s Manchester Public School District currently requires students to keep their phones in closed bags when entering school. Oklahoma, Indiana, Kansas, Washington and Vermont have proposed similar rules.

Movieguide® reported on Florida’s groundbreaking social media ban in March:

Florida just passed a law banning children under 13 from creating social media accounts.

“It’s not designed to address the content itself, which may receive certain First Amendment protections, but it’s designed to address the addictive qualities, the addictive features of social media,” said Melissa Henson, Vice President of Television Parenting Programs. and the Media Council. .

The law, called “HB 3,” bans children under 13 and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds who want to open accounts. It also requires porn sites to use age verification methods for their users. The law will not take effect until January 1, 2025.