Phones have become an essential part of most people’s everyday lives, and debates about them in schools - as well as teenagers’ access to social media - are internationally hot topics.
BBC journalist Hayley Clarke joins us in the studio to talk through different approaches to social media and phone bans in schools around the world. We also hear from students in France and the US about how they would feel about potential bans.
Hannah Ritchie, a BBC journalist, chats to us from Australia, where the government says it will introduce "world-leading" legislation to ban children under 16 from social media.
Plus we hear from two professors on opposing sides of the debate, and ask whether the scientific evidence behind the bans is robust.
00:00 Introduction 00:50 Screen time challenge 03:15 Average screen time statistics 04:16 Which countries are banning phones and social media? 05:45 Australia banning under-16s from social media 07:15 Evidence for smartphones affecting mental health 07:50 Modern childhood transformation theory 09:42 Other studies into impacts of smartphones 10:55 Why some experts think bans won’t work 12:38 Cause and effect 13:15 US student shares what they think 14:30 French students share what they think 17:05 What do companies say? 17:58 Tips to reduce screen time
