In recent years, schools Internationally and in Australia have moved to ban or restrict the use of mobile phones during school hours. As of 2025, mobile phones are banned in all Australian Government schools and many Catholic and Independent schools, although schools differ in how they implement the ban. Mobile phone bans are thought to be associated with better academic performance and less bullying (Beneito & Vicente-Chirivella, 2020), however some studies find limited impact of mobile phone bans on students (Campbell et al., 2024).
In Wave 3 of GENERATION (2024), we asked young people in Year 12 whether their school had a policy for having mobile phones in class. We categorised these responses into three categories:
1. No mobile phone policy
2. Partially restrictive policy (i.e., switched off during class, educational activities during class only)
3. Restrictive policy (i.e., phone off and secured for whole day).
We then analysed differences in mobile phone policies between school sectors and states, and the relationship between the type of mobile phone policy and the number of times students checked their phone during class.
The number of states and territories that have banned mobile phone in Government Schools in Australia
Percentage of students who report their school has a mobile phone policy
The number of times students with no mobile phone policy reported checking their phones in a 1-hour class
The number of times students with a restrictive mobile phone policy reported checking their phones in a 1-hour class
Only 1-2% of students reported no mobile phone policy in their school. Results indicated that around one third of schools had a partially restrictive phone policy and two thirds of school had a fully restrictive policy. The results were very similar for both Catholic and Government schools. There was a slightly lower percentage of Independent schools who had a fully restrictive phone policy (65%) compared to Catholic and Government schools (both 71%) in 2024.
The above figure shows that partial or restrictive mobile phone policies existed in all state systems, with only a very small proportion of students reporting no mobile phone policy in their school. Fully restrictive policies were the most common, however ACT and TAS reported lower proportions of fully restrictive phone policies. The ACT finding is consistent with enacted policies: In the ACT, students up to Year 10 in public schools are expected to have their phones off and secured for the whole day, and Year 11 and 12 students are allowed to have phones off and away during class time. Note that a large proportion of the students from Tasmania in GENERATION attended Independent schools.
The Wave 3 GENERATION survey also asked students: “During a typical one-hour class, how often do you check your phone for something other than the time?”
We compared the number of times students reported checking their phone in an hour by the type of mobile phone policy they reported. Students with no mobile phone policy reported checking their phone 3.65 times an hour, significantly more than the 1-2 times an hour for students with restrictive or partially restrictive policies. Students with a more restrictive policy reported checking their phone significantly less than students with a partially restrictive policy (1.49 times compared to 1.92 times).
As might be expected, the findings suggest that more restrictive mobile phone restrictions result in students looking at their phones in class less often.