This is the best summary I could come up with:
“I have seen these addictive algorithms pull in young people, literally capture them and make them prisoners in a space where they are cut off from human connection, social interaction and normal classroom activity,” she said.
The smartphone-ban bill will follow two others Hochul is pushing that outline measures to safeguard children’s privacy online and limit their access to certain features of social networks.
In New York, the bills have faced pushback from big tech, trade groups and other companies, which collectively spent more than $800,000 between October and March lobbying against one or both of them, according to public disclosure records.
This differs from other state-level bills across the country, which place some reliance on self-policing by tech companies to decide which features could be harmful by completing assessments of whether products are “reasonably likely” to be accessed by children.
“Meta itself admits its own parental controls aren’t widely used – they’re often confusing and frequently fail to work as intended,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, a policy advocacy organization.
The major social media firms have faced increasing scrutiny over harms against children, including sextortion scams, grooming by predators and worsening mental health.
The original article contains 922 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
“I have seen these addictive algorithms pull in young people, literally capture them and make them prisoners in a space where they are cut off from human connection, social interaction and normal classroom activity”
Literally? What kind of devices is she using that have these cyborg powers, and why am I just hearing about this now? Shit, mine just has cringe teens dancing.
smartphones are a distraction in schools. The teachers shouldn’t have them either, tbh
This so government overreach. Let the teachers and school admin decide. There no need to get the state government involved.
Ontario has now passed two different bills banning cell phones in school. It’s a great distraction from actual problems. I fully expect we’ll pass a third in a few years if our provincial government is re-elected
Teachers don’t need a sheet of paper at a legislature somewhere to take away cellphones. They can do that already, and if the kids disobey a legislature won’t help. I assume no one is expecting kids to go to prison for having a cellphone
The key thing is that teachers can ban phones in their individual classrooms if the school permits it.
There are many schools in which the senior admin don’t institute phone bans (you’d be surprised how common this is).
Legislating it helps maintain consistency and parity between schools nation wide, which is important as it’s a quality of education issue, so the policy should be consistent across all schools.
I’m not from North America, but the situation is similar across most western democracies.
Is she going to ban hats next? Put in a law telling students exactly how they can decorate their lockers?
Surely there are more pressing things to be legislated?
As someone who went through the NY public school system many years ago, I can confirm hats were/are hard banned. Like unless it was for religious reasons you really couldn’t even think about putting something on your head.
Cell phones were also banned in my youth but I guess times have changed?
Oh yes, but by the school. Not the law. We have elected positions specifically for figuring out how schools should teach children. Also top down negative mandates about clothes are already borderline abuses of power. We want laws preventing admins from going overboard, not mega bans in state law.
The research showing the impact of cellphones during class outweighs an individual’s opinion. This has nothing to do with fashion and can’t be compared to hats or locker decorations.
The research showing the impact of cellphones during class outweighs an individual’s opinion.
More broadly, any kind of in-class interruption can hurt academic performance. This same logic has been applied to dress codes, speech constraints (most famously Bong Hits for Jesus), and behavioral edicts.
But this wack-a-mole strategy of prohibitions isn’t championed because it is particularly effective. There’s always some new distraction in the classroom you can chase after next. The strategy is championed because its cheap. Banning cell phones has very little budgeted cost as a public policy. By contrast, reducing class sizes and providing more hands-on learning opportunities and hiring/retaining highly educated teachers has an enormous price tag.
Nevermind which strategy has a proven history of increased student performance. We just need to keep locking enormous pools of children in tiny windowless classrooms and throwing increasingly byzantine standardized tests at them, then chasing any student who produces a “distraction” from this mind-numbing educational policy.
Yes. It’s the children who are wrong.
It’s no different than sleeping through class or just doodling and ignoring the teacher. If the kid can’t not have their phone out then they get banished to the back of the class. If they play noise they get sent to the office, just like disruptive kids in every generation.
It’s no different than sleeping through class or just doodling and ignoring the teacher.
And there you have it folks, doodling is the same as these social media apps designed to be addictive that also lead to all kinds of bullying and social anxieties and harassment.
I’m sorry, you think banning smartphones at school is going to stop cyber bullying? Because bullies infamously follow the rules and kids are at school 24/7?
You said it was the same as doodling. I responded to that. All that other stuff you added was just fabricated in your own head.
Stop? No. But results so far have shown a decrease.
Let’s give them a suspension, send them to their lead painted home with a pack of smokes, just like every generation.
Okay Mr modest proposal.
I’m 100% in favor of this move. If parents really need their kid to have a phone at school, get them a basic flip phone.
You’re free to parent your own children however you like.
As long as it’s within the legal limits where you live.
The ability to search for answers online is important for learning
At a certain age/level I agree. However, they aren’t needed or helpful in basic low level grades where you’re teaching the framework to build upon.
Doesn’t need to be on a phone.
But it is on phones, conveniently accessible.
I mean that students can access that capability through a plethora of district provided resources. In the US, nearly every classroom has a fleet of laptops. Students don’t need to use a device that lets them screw around and goof off anymore than that lol
I agree that there is some benefit for classrooms without that technology, but, honestly, it’s more detrimental to the students’ mental health and learning process, regardless.
Most kids in middle and many in high school cannot psychologically handle/manage using their cell phone appropriately in class. We can’t expect them to. They’re kids. They take pictures of each other without permission (usually, generally, innocent, but sometimes not), they spend hours of instructional time scrolling inane crap on Instagram or Twitter or whatever, or they straight up play fortnite all class.
Most of these kids have not yet been equipped with the media and tech literacy skills they need to make good choices regarding their technology. This comes down to the inherent lag time in the field of education and while we began addressing this over the last few years, a lot of kids have been raised by smartphones more than they have been by their parents.
Until that connection between student and smart phone is treated with greater respect and understanding, which will take a massive culture shift, kids don’t need to access phones in class.
When i hear about social media hurting mental health i remember my time through school, before social media was a thing. The amounts are anecdotal of course, but all the same issues were definitely present. Bullying and harassment, body image problems, relationship problems, rumors and gossip and classism and bigotry. Social media is just another form of human interaction, human interaction itself can get ugly.
Social media use is related to classroom distractions, but I’d say it is it’s own can of worms that needs to be addressed.
The issue is both with scope and amplification of persistent issues like those you mentioned as well as the detached nature of communication over these apps or just on the internet in general.
Human interactions are definitely ugly and awkward at times, especially between kids as they try to make sense of their world. The increased amount/prevalence of these opportunities for communication through an algorithmic lens that perpetuates unrealistic societal expectations and is designed to keep the user constantly engaged both take a greater toll on mental health and distract people (adults included) from the task at hand or reality in general.
Reading books worked fine for a few thousand years.
If I used books for answers at work I’d be without a job pretty quick. It’s a slow antiquated technique. I don’t think kids need to look up answers on cell phones at school, but it would be smart to educate students how to use tools/resources that they will need and use in their daily lives.
The number of books that these students will reference in the their future careers in minimal. The number of phones/computer based systems is high.
If you are just teaching kids to regurgitate text from a textbook at this point they will forever be behind any LLM that exists. They need to learn to use information, quickly, and how to source it from reliable sources.
I don’t understand how a state governor can “introduce” a bill.
Isn’t that the legislature’s job?
Anyone can introduce a bill, including you. Only the legislature’s vote on it counts.
If you’re more worried about your kid at school getting shot than them getting distracted during their education, You might be the one living in a shit hole country.
I believe in educating kids to know how to ignore distractions. The phone will be there in every work/life situation and will be a tool used to get them further in their careers and life in general. It’s stupid to let them use them openly during class… It’s also stupid to make legislation about them. Notice we don’t have country wide dress codes for schools. Just legislation that says when such codes have gone to far. Banning students from having items they carry daily is just a stupid over abuse of power being instated for what reason? Failed parenting and failed educators?
You text during class you get told to stop, happens again you get detention/thrown out of class/sent to the dean and eventually thrown out of the school. Always was that way. No need for laws around it.
You text during class you get told to stop, happens again you get detention/thrown out of class/sent to the dean and eventually thrown out of the school. Always was that way. No need for laws around it.
It’s more complicated. Teachers can’t take away the phone because it’s an expensive piece of property and it opens all kinds of doors for the school being liable if it goes missing or gets broken. Not to mention if something does happen, the parents might sue the school.
And we aren’t talking about mere distractions, but things designed to keep kids addicted to them. You’re pitting school teachers and admins trying to get kids to pay attention to something often found as boring, against billion dollar businesses pushing punping money into keeping and grabbing kid’s attention. Plus having kids miss school because of a cell phone just doesn’t make sense, especially if the parents are pushing the kid to bring it.
The law just makes it clear and reduces liability for the school, and it’s better for kids.
I wish the world were the way our describe it, and that would work. But it doesn’t.
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Teachers
can’tshouldn’t take away the phone because it’s an expensive piece of property and … the schoolbeingis liable… Not to mention if something does happen, the parentsmightshould sue the school. The law just makesit clearthis legal and reduces liability for the school, andit’s better foras usual kids are told it’s better for them to be controlled and lack agency.FTFY.
things designed to keep kids addicted to them
You really think that’s what electronic engineers do?
You pretty obviously don’t know what you’re talking about, almost every class my children have been in for middle school and high school had the children commit to not using their smartphone and sent home a slip to be signed by parents acknowledging that the phones will be taken away and have to be picked up by a parent if they become a distraction for the student. They include similar language in the school student handbook as well.
This law is just ridiculous authoritative nonsense, being used to score a victory for political marketing purposes.
Agreements and enforcement are two different things. Have you talked to any teachers about how this plays out?
Good. We already did that here.
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2024/06/police-investigate-shooting-outside-garfield-high-school/
5 days ago. Glad they have their priorities straight.
This sucks, because smartphones could be such fantastic tools in a classroom. Not that I’m under the illusion that they’re being used in any sort of productive way (or even would be), I was once a kid scrolling through shitposts and memes in class. But having all of the textbooks in one place, the ability to record lectures and whiteboards for later review, and automated schedule management would’ve definitely made my high school education a lot smoother.
The other side of the coin on this. Cell phones as day planners are invaluable. So kids who have spent their lives organizing their schedules on digital calendars are being told “Oops! Sorry. You can’t use that anymore. We caught someone else using it incorrectly.”
Incidentally, I’m old enough to remember how every graphing calculator in the school had video games installed on them and half my class carried a gameboy someone on their persons. This is going to be pure wack-a-mole as a policy. Selectively enforced, with lots of high profile punishments for minor infractions and inevitably highly intrusive misconduct by individual teachers and principles. Richer, whiter students will almost certainly be exempted from the policy through loopholes. Poorer, blacker students will be shoved even more forcefully through the School To Prison Pipeline. Cops will inevitably get involved in the worst possible way.
And all of this will be sold as a means of “reducing distractions”.
Yea, I had my phone taken a few times in school. It’s fine.
But I was programming on my calculator more. My history teacher was the only one to say anything about it since it was very distracting for me. But he never took it.
Yeah, and there are some analytical apps for smartphone cameras and sensors, like measuring physio with accel or gyro. But I guess that’s okay to include as a part of a course and not really needed for rest of the school day
When using the right tools, phones are already incredibly powerful in an educational environment. There’s a reason why Kahoot achieved meme status: it’s because students love it.
Good idea. Its of the main reason why education today is faltering. Allowing too many screen in the class room is simply a bad idea. These kids have the no ability to stay focused in any way. They way they learn guarantees many will never learn to read without a screen and the internet. I see it often in my current job.
What a creep. Instead of making NYC safer for kids by reducing cars, she’s making school more of an authoritarian prison.
Authoritarian prison? Calm down. All place have rules, schools are to learn, not to be on your phone all the time. We were without mobile phones for Millenia and now that they’re here you’re acting as if you can’t live without one.
Yes, you can live without your mobile phone and if you think you can’t then this new law is exactly for you
