Top Church of England school first in UK to ban smartphones

A leading Church of England school has become the first in Britain to ban smartphones but permit “brick” devices, in an effort to protect pupils from social media.

David Smith, head teacher at the Fulham Boys School in west London, believes children should not have smartphones until they reach 16 years old and – like sex education – should be taught about the risks and benefits of social media before they are allowed to use it.

He hopes his new policy, introduced this term, will allow the boys to text and call their parents and friends on brick phones to tell them they are safe, without resorting to social media.

Mr Smith, whose school is among the top 5 per cent in the country, admitted his experiment could take five or 10 years to bear fruit. A survey of its 820 pupils found 97 per cent already had smartphones.

However, he said some parents of 11-year-olds starting this term had bought their children brick phones – which can only be used for calls and texts – instead of smart versions in anticipation of the school’s ban.

“There’s two stages. The first stage for those who already have smartphones is for parents to think, OK, if I’m going to take this on board, how can I potentially restrict their use of it,” he said.

“The second stage is looking ahead five, 10 years down the line, I am saying to parents: ‘You need to question whether your children should be able to access a smartphone.’

“My hope is, in five years’ time, or even less, there’s a solution enabling young people to have Google Maps for parents to be able to track their whereabouts and to be able to access some basic things like maybe WhatsApp, or listen to music, but they’re protected from the endless algorithms that come through social media.”

‘Toxic masculinity’

While smartphones are banned, pupils aged 11 to 16 can bring the brick phones into school but only use them on arrival to tell their parents they have got there safely and at the end of the school day to say they are on their way home.

Any unauthorised phone use results in its confiscation for six school weeks. Pupils aged 16 to 18 are allowed smartphones with tight restrictions on use in school time and classes.

The move followed the school survey which also found 56 per cent had got smartphones when they were nine or 10. 

More than four in 10 (42 per cent) received about 50 notifications a day, and 11 per cent more than 200. Nearly four in 10 (38 per cent) said they had unrestricted access allowing them to view anything at any time.

“It’s not that they are potentially addicted to their phones, which I think a lot of them are, but even when they’re not on their phones, their phone is just calling out to them over and over and over again, which is a reason why we’re getting rid of smartwatches for our sixth formers as well,” said Mr Smith.

He said schools were picking up the pieces of the consequences of children’s access to social media including the “toxic masculinity” of influencers like Andrew Tate damaging their views of how to treat women, porn, bullying and body image content fuelling eating disorders.

“My view is, as soon as you give a smartphone to a child, you’re choosing to take away their childhood, you’re opening a door that you can’t shut into the realities of the world that we live in,” said Mr Smith.