How restricting student cellphone use in Oklahoma schools could benefit youth mental health
Looking for ways to solve the youth mental health crisis, policymakers and school leaders across the U.S. have targeted cellphone and social media use in schools. In Oklahoma, an increasing number of school districts have implemented restrictions on student cellphone use, and lawmakers have proposed broader policy changes and incentives to promote phone-free classrooms statewide.
The youth mental health crisis — and the negative role social media plays in it — has been well-documented. In a 2023 advisory on the harms of social media use on youth, the U.S. Surgeon General wrote that social media can have a “profound risk of harm to the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents.”
The advisory highlights research that shows youth suffer from higher rates of mental health issues when spending hours on social media each day. Because young people often use cellphones to access social media, cellphones have become an obvious target amid concerns about youth mental health.
While local or district-level policies restricting student cellphone use are not new, many of these policies are hindered by lack of district-wide buy-in, parental concerns, and spotty enforcement, which leaves room for stronger state-level policies.
As school cellphone restrictions gain attention across the country, Oklahoma lawmakers should consider action at the state level to restrict student cellphone use at school. In doing so, Oklahoma could foster more focused classrooms and help students develop healthier relationships with social media and screen time.
Key takeaways
- As youth mental health continues to suffer, new statewide survey data found that about half of Oklahoma middle- and high-school students “always” or “often” felt the urge to use social media, and about a third used it as an escape from their problems. About a quarter of students said they used social media for five or more hours a day.
- Social media use is linked to poor mental health in young people, including depression and anxiety.
- Oklahoma should curb classroom distractions and protect students’ wellbeing by joining a growing number of states that have introduced a statewide policy requiring districts to restrict student cellphone use in schools, while still allowing school leaders to adapt and individualize the policies to suit their needs.
Impact of cellphones on youth mental health
Since cellphones and social media were introduced, young people have quickly become “super-users” of these technologies, with about 51% of youth engaging in heavy cellphone and social media use at an average of 4.8 hours a day.
A recent study found that up to 95% of teens use social media, and about a third report using it “almost constantly.” Younger children also use social media: among children between 8 and 12 years old, about two in five already use social media.
This near-constant use of cellphones and social media in young people has been linked to difficulties with sleep, attention, and a variety of mental health problems, including depression and anxiety, as well as increased risk of suicidality.
A Gallup poll conducted in 2023 found that rates of youth mental health issues increased with hours spent on social media. Teens that spent over five hours a day on social media had higher rates of poor mental health and suicidality than teens with less social media use.
Rates of youth mental health issues increase with hours spent on social media
In social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book, “The Anxious Generation,” which makes the case for phone-free schools, he shows how the share of middle- and high-school students who use social media for 40+ hours a week rapidly increased in the early 2010s, when smartphones became widely adopted.
The rapid rise of smartphone and social media use among U.S. households
Around the same time — and not by coincidence, Haidt argues — rates of depression and anxiety rose among youth too. In his book, he highlights several measures that illustrate this point:
- In 2020, about a third of girls ages 12-17 had a major depressive episode in the past year — up 145% since 2010. For boys, it was about 1 in 10 — still a 161% increase since 2010. (Source: National Survey on Drug Use and Health, page 1)
- There was a 139% increase in people ages 18-25 reporting high levels of anxiety since 2010, with smaller increases among older age groups. (Source: National Survey on Drug Use and Health, page 2)
- Between 2010 and 2015, there was a significant increase in U.S. teens getting less than 7 hours of sleep per night. As of 2019, about half of girls and about 40% of boys got less than 7 hours. (Source: Monitoring The Future survey, page 14)
These data point to a correlation between smartphone and social media use among young people and negative mental health symptoms, especially among girls. In Oklahoma, rates of major depressive episodes among youth also rose significantly during the period Haidt highlights, 2010 to 2015.
Share of youth ages 12-17 who had a major depressive episode in the past year
Youth mental health in Oklahoma
In the most recent Oklahoma Prevention Needs Assessment (OPNA), new survey questions about how social media impacts students’ mood and learning showed how closely these platforms are intertwined with young people’s lives. Nearly half said they “often” or “always” feel the urge to use social media, and about a third said they “often” or “always” use social media as an escape from their problems.
How Oklahoma students feel about social media
The OPNA is a survey given every other year to students in 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in public, private, and charter schools. The survey, conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS), is used to collect data and analyze trends about student substance use, mental health, violence, and academics. The OPNA asks students about depressive symptoms, psychological distress, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts, as well as other risk factors. (It is worth noting that asking about suicide and suicidality does not increase suicidal tendencies but can actually encourage people to seek treatment when needed.)
While the new questions about social media do not reference cellphones or other electronic devices specifically, cellphones are the most common access point to social media for many youths, particularly while they are within the classroom.
About 18% of students said they “often” or “always” use social media during school hours. Social media use during school trended higher among high school students compared to middle-schoolers.
Social media use during school hours
In the survey, most students said social media made them feel better connected to friends’ feelings and what’s going on in their friends’ lives. But about 1 in 5 said social media made them feel worse about their own lives and that they felt pressured to only post content that made them look good to others.
How long Oklahoma students spend on social media in their free time
Previous statewide OPNA data shows that Oklahoma children have significant mental health challenges. Across the state, about 63,000 reported having a major depressive episode in the past year, but less than half of those children — about 28,000 — received any mental health treatment.
Additionally, around 1 in 10 youth met criteria for a substance use disorder, and nearly 1 in 3 middle and high school students had high levels of psychological distress, underscoring the need for action around the youth mental health crisis.
School cellphone restrictions across the U.S.
While phone-free school policies are not new at the local level, some state policymakers have begun to adopt or discuss broader restrictions by requiring school districts to adopt policies that restrict cellphone use during academic hours.
In 2009, about 91% of public schools barred students from using cellphones at school during instructional periods, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This fell to about 66% in 2015, and while the reason for the decline is unclear, the share of schools that restrict student cellphone use has started rising again. In 2020, about 76% of all U.S. public schools, including 43% of high schools, prohibited non-academic cellphone use.
Statewide policies to restrict student cellphone use
In 2023, Florida became the first U.S. state to pass a statewide policy restricting students’ use of cellphones at school. This bill requires students grades 6 through 12 to receive education regarding the social, emotional, and physical effects of social media, and it prohibits use of devices during instructional time in public schools, allowing for educational exemptions.
Following Florida’s lead, seven more states have since passed statewide policies that restrict the use of cellphones in schools as of November 2024. These states include Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina, Virginia, and, most recently, California.
States with policies to limit or restrict student cellphone use in schools
These policies vary by state — some are a total ban of student cellphone use on campus, while others allow limited use between class periods. Some states require students to simply turn off and store their devices away while on campus, and others require students to lock their devices in a magnetic pouch that is unlocked at the end of the school day. Nearly all of these policies extend to other electronic devices, including tablets and smartwatches.
Exceptions to these policies across states and districts also vary, but exceptions often allow cellphone use to allow students to monitor a health issue, for learning purposes, for students with an individualized education plan (IEP), or for emergencies.
Policy recommendations and proposals
Nine other states have either had their State Department of Education issue a policy recommendation (Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington, and West Virginia) or introduce a pilot program (Arkansas and Delaware) around restricting cellphone use in schools. These programs and recommendations do not require districts to adopt policies restricting cellphone use but rather encourage and incentivize them to do so. Again, some programs include funding for the use of lockable phone pouches.
Furthermore, legislative restrictions on cellphone use in schools have been introduced in an additional twelve states: Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Vermont.
Because the earliest statewide restrictions went into effect in July 2024, little to no data has been collected so far on the impact that restrictions have had on students’ mental health or academics. As more research and data are collected, we expect to see similar policies introduced across the country in states’ upcoming legislative sessions.
Arguments against student cellphone restrictions
As policymakers propose policies to limit student cellphone use to protect youth mental health and promote more focused classrooms, opponents of these policies take a different view. For example, some parents oppose these types of restrictions because they want to be able to contact their children throughout the day in case of an emergency. However, proponents of phone-free classroom policies state that with a well-defined school communication policy, parents can still contact their children in an emergency — by calling the school office, for example. Proponents also say that having students use their phones during an emergency can hinder emergency responders, or, in the case of an intruder in the school, inadvertently alert an assailant to students’ presence.
Other arguments against restrictions on student cellphone use stem from research finding mixed results from studies on cellphone use and its impact on academics and mental health, or from social media being seen as a protective factor against loneliness, providing space for online connection. These arguments highlight the need for additional research and data collection as phone-free policies are implemented in more schools.
Cellphone policies and proposals in Oklahoma
More and more school districts across Oklahoma have implemented restrictions on student cellphone use at school, with some using lockable pouches to store phones during the school day.
Recently, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Bixby, and Union school districts have each introduced cellphone restrictions, with some requiring cellphones to be put away for the entire school day and others allowing cellphone use outside of instructional time.
A small rural district in eastern Oklahoma, Warner Public Schools, has had a zero-tolerance cellphone policy for over a decade: students’ phones and other smart devices must be turned off and out of sight for the entire school day. The Warner district superintendent has said the district has seen an increase in its school rating by the state since implementation began, consistently earning As and Bs on annual state report cards.
In 2024, several Oklahoma lawmakers introduced legislation that would incentivize schools to implement policies that restrict student cellphone use. While these bills stalled and did not become law, it is likely that similar bills will be filed in future sessions, and lawmakers began a conversation about curbing cellphone use in schools through statewide policy.
House Bill 3913, by Rep. Chad Caldwell (R-Enid) and Sen. Ally Seifried (R-Claremore), would have required the State Department of Education (SDE) to create a one-year pilot program that would have provided grants to public middle schools, junior high schools, and high schools, incentivizing phone-free spaces for student learning. Additionally, the pilot program would have required the grants awarded be used to purchase devices or equipment in which students could have stored their cell phones during the school day, such as a magnetic Yondr pouch. This bill also would have required school sites awarded grants to adopt a policy regarding emergency use of cell phones by students during the school day, such as for medical use.
Senate Bill 1314, by Sen. Adam Pugh (R-Edmond) and Rep. Caldwell, would have required SDE to create an incentive program for school districts that adopted phone-free campus policies. The bill also established midyear adjustments in State Aid amounts for schools that adopted a policy with repayment required if the school was found to be in noncompliance with their submitted policy.
Senate Bill 1321, by Sen. Seifried, would have required the State Board of Education to establish a two-year pilot program to provide grants to public middle schools and high schools to incentivize phone-free spaces for student learning.
Gov. Kevin Stitt has also pushed schools to limit student cellphone use through cost-neutral strategies in his September 2024 executive order, which created the “Oklahoma Phone-Free Schools Challenge.” The governor’s office encouraged districts to share their cellphone policies with the administration to inform a report outlining best practices for these kinds of policies and offer examples to other school districts.
Recommendations for Oklahoma
Cellphone use in schools has been shown to interrupt learning and negatively impact students’ mental wellbeing. As lawmakers turn their attention to school cellphone policies, Oklahoma should take a strategic approach to limiting cellphone use at schools by requiring school districts to restrict cellphone use during academic hours, while still allowing districts flexibility in how to tailor these policies to their needs.
Offering an adaptable model policy could alleviate administrative burden on districts while allowing them to make their own choices about how to implement the policy — for example, whether to require students’ phones to be put away for the entire school day, to allow cellphone use outside of instructional time, or to outline instances where cellphones could be used as part of classroom activities. A flexible model policy could also allow schools to offer exceptions that make sense for their student population (like allowing students to use cellphones to monitor a medical device) and develop appropriate repercussions for students that violate the policy.
South Carolina, for example, created a model policy for schools to restrict students’ cellphone use, outlining language, definitions, and guidance for implementation and enforcement of cellphone restrictions. Oklahoma can look to examples in South Carolina and use findings from the governor’s forthcoming report on Oklahoma’s phone-free schools challenge to craft a model policy that allows appropriate flexibility at the district level while maintaining a focused school environment.
Oklahoma should also collect more data to understand the impact of cellphone and social media use on youth mental health as well as academic performance. Adding more targeted questions to the biennial OPNA survey — such as how many hours students use their phones during and outside of school — would allow policymakers and school leaders to develop a more robust understanding of the factors that impact a student’s mental health and learning.
