UWE Bristol researchers expand their work on smartphone use among young people

Academics who conducted the most comprehensive survey of its type on smartphone experiences and school policy in the UK have expanded their research work.

The pioneering study led by Dr Benjamin Knight and Dr Paul Redford last year gathered the views of thousands of pupils, parents and teachers on the use of smartphones among children at schools in inner city, suburban and rural settings in and around Bristol.

Among the headline findings from the Bristol Smartphone Experience and School Policy Project were that smartphone use was hitting struggling pupils the hardest, parents were underestimating the types of harmful content their children are accessing, and that teachers and parents were broadly supportive of stricter school policy on smartphone use.

Now Dr Knight and Dr Redford, from UWE Bristol’s School of Education and Childhood, have been successful in securing two additional funding grants for research projects on smartphone use among young people, and have attracted interest from Parliament.

The academics are leading a second study, in conjunction with the States of Guernsey, exploring smartphones and their place in schools in the Channel Islands. Views on current school policies will be collected from parents, students and staff at every school on the islands of Guernsey and Alderney, to help make future education and public health policy decisions. Headline findings are expected to be published in the summer.

In addition, the Nuffield Foundation has awarded the researchers £27,690 to further analyse their original Bristol data set from 2025 over the next 12 months, deriving findings which can inform government policy about school smartphone rules and young people’s digital wellbeing. The academics will be using their findings to respond to the Government's Growing Up in the Online World national consultation, which closes at the end of May.

Separately, the work of Dr Knight and Dr Redford has attracted the attention of policymakers. They were invited to attend a roundtable event on smartphones in schools organised by Baroness Diana Barran MBE, who tabled an amendment to the government's Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill for a statutory ban on smartphones in schools.

The academics, members of the Education and Childhood Research Group at UWE Bristol, were among eight experts invited to give evidence at an open event for Peers and MPs. Other experts included head teachers, an educational psychologist and the director of the charity Parentkind.

They shared some preliminary findings from the Bristol Smartphone Experience and School Policy Project, including evidence about:

• Limitations of the 'not seen/not heard' policy which is prevalent across the country.
• Harms young people report experiencing on their smartphones.
• Young people who self-report struggling academically (versus coasting, thriving) experience most harm - and those most harmed are least likely to want more restrictions on their smartphones in school.
• Parents underestimating the prevalence of harmful experiences for young people using smartphones.

Presentations from experts were followed by a Q&A from the floor, with questions raised by a number of Peers and MPs.

Evidence presented at the roundtable event contributed towards a vote in the House of Lords in favour of Baroness Barran’s amendment on Monday 20 April. The vote in part prompted the Government to announce on Tuesday 21 April the introduction of a legal ban on smartphones in schools in England.

Dr Knight, Senior Lecturer in Education, said: “It is encouraging to see our work beginning to bear fruit, with evidence from the study informing parliamentary discussion and shaping debate on this important national issue. Presenting our findings at Westminster was a privilege.”