Teenagers should be banned from using mobiles in school because their brains are not mature enough, leading headteacher says

Teenagers should be stopped from having mobile phones in school because their brains are not mature enough to exercise self-control, the head of a prestigious boarding school has said.

Students should be taught how to control technology through digital detoxes rather than being left to decide for themselves, according to Lisa Kerr of Gordonstoun School in Scotland – which was attended by Prince Philip and Prince Charles.

Her comments come after another leading headteacher suggested schools cannot be “Luddite” about mobile phones, arguing that they should not be “demonised” as they can be useful in the classroom.

Jane Prescott, head of £14,400-a-year Portsmouth High School and new president of the Girls’ Schools Association, added that banning phones simply meant youngsters used them in places where they could not be monitored.

But the comments have sparked a fierce debate among school leaders across the country who believe mobile phone bans are much needed.

Ms Kerr, principal of £41,250-a-year Gordonstoun, where pupils are not allowed to use their phones until the end of lessons and activities, said: “Teenage brains aren’t sufficiently developed to exercise the necessary self-control, so the adults in their lives need to set boundaries.”

She added: “Just as you wouldn’t leave out bowls of sweets and expect children to eat sensibly, we need to help our students to control technology rather than allowing technology to control them.”

Meanwhile, Katharine Birbalsingh, head of Michaela Community School in London, where mobile phones are banned, has accused private schools of not understanding the issues that state schools face.

Ms Birbalsingh, whose state school has been dubbed “the strictest in the country’,’ told The Independent: “I think it is really dangerous when people who don’t have a wide enough experience of the damage this does to children in the inner city make those kind of comments.

“If you sit next to your child every time they use a smartphone, or have a shared Facebook account with them, that is a different matter. Maybe private school children can cope with the world of unsupervised access to the internet. If they come home and their parents are with them, sat around the dinner table, talking about the politics of the day and they monitor their screen usage, then fine.

“But that isn’t what happens in reality for kids in the inner city. Their lives are at risk and I don’t understand why anybody would want to encourage children to use smartphones.”

The argument follows the decision by St Peter’s CE Primary School in Leigh, near Wigan, to make the playground a mobile-free zone to encourage parents to listen to their children at the end of the day.

Additional reporting by Press Association