无手机学校，可行吗？| 金融时报

Philip Hurst is the headteacher of what he proudly describes as a “phone-free school”.

菲利普•赫斯特(Philip Hurst)是一所学校的校长，他自豪地称之为“无手机学校”。

Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham, Suffolk, is among a growing number of UK schools choosing to impose strict rules on smartphones as concerns mount over their impact on children’s mental health.

位于英国萨福克郡弗拉姆林厄姆的托马斯•米尔斯高中(Thomas Mills High School)，正成为越来越多的选择对智能手机实施严格规定的英国学校之一。人们正日益担忧手机对儿童心理健康的影响。

Since September, the pupils — aged between 11 and 16 — have been asked to put their phones into lockers when they arrive, where they remain until the bell rings at the end of the day.

自9月以来，年龄在11到16岁之间的该校学生被要求在到校时把手机放进储物柜，直到一天结束下课铃声响起时才能取出。

“The whole idea is that if they are out of sight, they are out of mind,” Hurst tells the Financial Times. Previously, the 1,000 children in his school were not allowed to look at phones while in lessons, but were allowed to keep phones in pockets and school bags.

“这个想法是，如果他们看不见手机，就不会去想。” 赫斯特告诉英国《金融时报》。在此之前，他学校的1000名学生在上课时不允许看手机，但可以把手机放在口袋和书包里。

Just four phones have been confiscated since the ban was introduced two months ago, he said, “whereas that would have been a daily occurrence in the past”.

他说，自从两个月前禁令出台以来，只有4部手机被没收，“而在过去，这种情况每天都会发生”。

The death of British teenager Molly Russell, who took her own life after viewing thousands of posts about suicide, depression and self-harm online, was one reason behind Hurst’s decision to impose a ban.

英国青少年莫莉•拉塞尔(Molly Russell)在浏览了数千条关于自杀、抑郁和自残的帖子后自杀，这是赫斯特决定实施禁令的原因之一。

“I am seriously worried about the mental health effect of the time children are spending on phones,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared to just wait for someone to tell me I had to take action.”

“我非常担心孩子们在手机上花费的时间对心理健康的影响，”他说，“我不愿意被动地等待别人告诉我必须采取行动。”

Philip Hurst, headteacher of Thomas Mills High School, says he is ‘seriously worried’ about the effect of phones on children’s mental health

托马斯•米尔斯高中的校长菲利普•赫斯特表示，他“非常担忧”手机对儿童心理健康的影响。

Almost half the British public believe there should be a total ban on smartphones in schools, according to a poll by Ipsos for the FT.

根据英国《金融时报》委托益普索(Ipsos)进行的一项民意调查，几乎一半的英国公众认为学校应该全面禁止智能手机。

Of the 2,175 adults surveyed, 48 per cent supported banning mobile phones in school buildings altogether, while 71 per cent said they supported asking students to deposit their phones in a basket during class.

在接受调查的2175名成年人中，48%支持完全禁止在学校大楼内使用手机，而71%表示支持要求学生在上课期间将手机放入篮子中。

Of those who responded, 30 per cent said they believed 11-12 years old was the most acceptable age for a child to be given a smartphone, while 28 per cent said 13-14 was more appropriate.  

在回答者中，30%的人表示他们认为11-12岁是给孩子智能手机的最合适年龄，而28%的人认为13-14岁更合适。

In April, a study conducted by regulator Ofcom found nearly a quarter of children in the UK aged between five and seven own a smartphone. A significant number used social media apps such as TikTok and WhatsApp despite being below the minimum age limit of 13.

4月份，监管机构英国通讯管理局(Ofcom)进行的一项研究发现，英国5-7岁的儿童中有近四分之一拥有智能手机。大量儿童使用诸如TikTok和WhatsApp等社交媒体应用，尽管他们未达到13岁的最低年龄限制。

At the same time a growing body of research is starting to demonstrate how the proliferation of smartphones and social media apps is driving an increase in eating disorders, depression and anxiety among young people.

同时，越来越多的研究开始表明，智能手机和社交媒体应用的泛滥正在导致青少年的饮食失调、抑郁和焦虑问题增加。

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues in his book The Anxious Generation that smart devices have “rewired childhood”. He believes smartphones should be banned entirely for children under the age of 14.

社会心理学家乔纳森•海特(Jonathan Haidt)在他的著作《焦虑一代》(The Anxious Generation)中指出，智能设备已经“重塑了童年”。他认为应该完全禁止14岁以下的儿童使用智能手机。

Research carried out this year by the University of Oxford found social media use in teenagers is strongly correlated with poor mental health.

今年牛津大学(University of Oxford)进行的研究发现，青少年使用社交媒体与心理健康不佳有很强的相关性。

The academics behind the study told the FT they had uncovered a “linear relationship” between higher rates of anxiety and depression and time spent networking on social media sites.

研究背后的学者告诉英国《金融时报》，他们发现在社交媒体网站上花费的时间，与焦虑和抑郁的发生率之间存在“线性关系”。

For schools, guidance set out by the last Conservative government earlier this year states that it is up to individual heads to decide their own policies when it comes to the use of phones. But there is a growing call from parents and policymakers to make bans a statutory requirement.

上届保守党政府今年早些时候对学校制定了指引，规定各校校长在使用手机方面自行决定其政策。但家长和政策制定者越来越多地呼吁将禁令作为法定要求。

“A growing body of evidence is showing that smartphones, and social media in particular, are negatively impacting children’s mental health, sleep and learning,” said Josh MacAlister, a Labour MP and former teacher, who is hoping to push his “safer phones” private members’ bill through the House of Commons next year.

工党议员、前教师乔什•麦克阿利斯特(Josh MacAlister)表示，“越来越多的证据表明，智能手机，尤其是社交媒体，对儿童的心理健康、睡眠和学习产生了负面影响。”他希望明年能够在下议院推动他的“更安全手机”私人草案。

The government has ruled out backing his proposal to legally mandate phone-free schools. But the MP said the government was “open minded” on other sections of the bill that were designed to make smartphones less addictive for children.

政府已排除支持他的提案，即立法强制要求学校禁用手机。但这名议员表示，政府对该法案关于减少儿童对智能手机成瘾的其他部分持“开放态度”。

His bill would raise the age at which children can consent to data sharing without parental permission from 13 to 16, which he says would make it harder for social media companies to “make content so addictive”.

他的提案将把儿童可以在未经父母许可的情况下同意数据共享的年龄从13岁提高到16岁，他表示这将使社交媒体公司更难“让内容变得如此令人上瘾”。

The second part of MacAlister’s bill would widen Ofcom’s powers to ensure apps’ “persuasive design features” — which the MP describes as “the bits that are addictive by design, long scrolling, nudges and notification” — are age appropriate, and not included in versions of social media used by children under 16.

麦克阿利斯特的法案的第二部分将扩大英国通讯管理局的权力，以确保应用的“具有说服力的设计特征”——他对此的描述为“那些设计为具备成瘾性的部分，如长时间滚动、推送和通知”——与年龄相适应，并且不被纳入16岁以下儿童使用的社交媒体版本中。

Wes Streeting, UK health secretary, signalled the government’s support last month, posting on X: “Given the impact of smartphone use and addiction on the mental health of children and young people and the concerns from parents, this is a really timely debate.”

英国卫生大臣韦斯•斯特里廷(Wes Streeting)上个月表达了政府对此的支持，他在X上发帖：“鉴于智能手机对儿童和青少年心理健康的影响和成瘾问题，以及家长的担忧，这是一个非常及时的辩论。”

Ministers will be watching developments in Australia, where the government last week announced a ban on social media sites for children under the age of 16.

大臣们将密切关注澳大利亚的发展，该国政府上周宣布禁止16岁以下儿童使用社交媒体网站。

Another reason Hurst said he chose to introduce a phone ban at Thomas Mills High was the influence of a local group of parents, who are calling on schools to play a role in limiting their children’s use of devices.

赫斯特表示，他选择在托马斯•米尔斯高中实施手机禁令的另一个原因是受到当地一群家长的影响，他们呼吁学校在限制孩子使用设备方面发挥作用。

Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of the Smartphone Free Childhood movement, is also based in Suffolk. The group, which initially started as a local WhatsApp group of parents pledging to hold off giving their children phones until the age of 14, has splintered off into separate groups across England and has swelled to 150,000 members.

黛西•格林韦尔(Daisy Greenwell)是“无智能手机童年”(Smartphone Free Childhood)的联合创始人，她也住在萨福克。这个团体最初是一个由父母组成的本地WhatsApp群组，承诺在孩子满14岁之前不给他们手机，如今已在英格兰各地发展出独立团体，会员人数已增至15万人。

Greenwell said it was a “no-brainer” that all schools should be smartphone free. “It gives kids six to seven hours a day in which they’re free to learn and socialise away from the addictive and predatory algorithms of Big Tech,” Greenwell said.

格林韦尔说，所有学校都“理所当然”应该禁止使用智能手机。她说：“这让孩子们每天有6-7个小时的时间，可以远离大科技公司令人上瘾和掠夺性的算法，自由地学习和社交。”

“Teachers tell us that smartphones are disastrous in a school context and a huge drain on their time and resources.”

“老师们告诉我们，智能手机在学校环境中是灾难性的，会大大消耗他们的时间和资源。”

As well as banning their use during the day, Greenwell would like to see schools ban smartphones entirely in favour of simpler “dumb” phones.

除了禁止白天使用外，格林韦尔还希望学校完全禁止智能手机的使用，转而使用更简单的“傻瓜”手机。

“It instantly levels the playing field and dissolves the insidious network effects of the smartphone — whereby kids need one solely because everyone else has one,” she said.

她说：“这能立即使环境变得公平，并消除了智能手机的隐性网络效应——孩子们需要智能手机，只是因为其他人都有一个。”

It is an idea that appears to be gaining traction among parents, with Virgin Media O2 reporting last month that they had seen the sale of non-smartphones double over the past year, with a “significant spike” in September.

这个想法似乎在家长中间越来越受欢迎，维珍媒体O2(Virgin Media O2)上个月报告称，过去一年非智能手机的销量翻了一番，9月出现了“显著增长”。

Hurst said children who break the no phones policy at Thomas Mills High School are given detention and parents are called to collect the devices.

赫斯特表示，在托马斯•米尔斯高中违反手机禁令的学生会被留校反省，学校会联系家长前来领取设备。

“Overall the ban has been responded to really positively,” he said. “The children and teachers say there is less disruption in classrooms, more eye contact and greater social engagement. We are slowly making it normal that going to school, like sitting in the cinema, is just not an appropriate place to be on your phone.”

“总体来说，禁令得到了非常积极的回应，”他说，“孩子们和老师们表示，课堂上的干扰减少了，眼神交流更多，社交互动更频繁。我们正在慢慢让人们接受，上学就像坐在电影院里一样，不是使用手机的合适场所。”