NEW YORK, Feb 5: As discussions about banning phones in schools intensify, a new study has revealed that the average teenager spends a quarter of their school day scrolling on their smartphones. Research conducted by the Seattle Children’s Research Institute found that adolescents aged 13 to 18 spend an average of 1½ hours on their phones during a 6½-hour school day.

Public health and pediatric scientists conducted the study to gain insights not only into overall screen time but also into the specific duration and content of smartphone usage, particularly during school hours. Senior author Lauren Hale, a public health researcher and mother of two middle schoolers, expressed concern over how phone use is impacting both learning and in-person social opportunities for students. “School hours are precious,” she said in a statement.

The study involved nearly 300 participants who took part in a 15-minute smartphone-based survey, using the RealityMeter app to track their phone usage. After analyzing the data, the researchers narrowed the sample to 117 adolescents who used their phones during at least two school days per week. The results showed that while teens averaged 1½ hours of smartphone use during school, over 25% of them spent more than two hours on their phones each day.

In terms of activity, teens primarily used their phones for general internet browsing, text messaging, Instagram, video streaming, audio, and email. These findings were published in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics titled “Adolescent Smartphone Use During School Hours.”

The researchers emphasized the need for more studies with larger sample sizes to better reflect the broader adolescent population. Hale noted that much of the existing research relies on self-reported data, but this study provided more objective insights into smartphone use, allowing for a better understanding of when and how smartphones are used in school.

The study comes at a time when there is growing momentum to ban smartphones in schools. New York Governor Kathy Hochul recently released a report titled “More Learning, Less Scrolling,” which aims to address the issue of smartphone distraction in classrooms. The proposed ban would take effect next school year, requiring public and charter school students to refrain from using “internet-enabled devices” during school hours.