Do bans on smartphones in schools improve mental health?

校园手机禁令真能改善心理健康？

What the early evidence suggests about the effect on students

初步研究揭示的禁令效果如何

France has not allowed smartphone use in primary or secondary schools since 2018, claiming that it would help children focus, reduce their social-media use and mitigate online bullying. 

自2018年起，法国全面禁止中小学生在校使用智能手机，旨在提升学生专注力、减少社交媒体依赖并遏制网络霸凌。

The Netherlands initiated a similar ban in January 2024. Hungary followed suit later that year. Legislators in Britain are considering similar measures. The key question facing them is whether banning smartphones in schools offers any benefits to mental health.

荷兰于2024年1月跟进类似禁令，匈牙利同年也随之效仿。英国立法机构现正考虑同类措施。这项措施的核心争议在于：校园手机禁令是否真能带来心理健康效益？

That there is a problem seems clear. In 2021 America’s surgeon general compiled a report revealing that persistent feelings of hopelessness climbed by 40% among American high-school pupils between 2009 and 2019. The number who seriously considered killing themselves went up by 36%. What makes these findings all the worse is that 48% of mental-health problems (like depression and anxiety) that emerge during adolescence will plague people for the rest of their lives.

青少年心理健康危机已是不争事实。2021年美国卫生局局长编制的报告显示，2009至2019年间，美国高中生产生持续性绝望感者激增40%，产生严重自杀意念者增加36%。更令人担忧的是，48%的青春期心理健康问题（如抑郁和焦虑）将伴随患者终身。

It is tempting to connect these trends with the increased availability of smartphones, but establishing a causal connection is difficult. Part of the problem is that smartphones contain multitudes. Using a smartphone to solve crosswords or read the news may well have markedly different psychological effects from intensive social-media use.

虽然这些趋势看似与智能手机普及存在关联，但建立因果联系困难重重。关键在于智能手机功能的多面性：用手机玩填字游戏或浏览新闻，与不停地刷社交媒体相比，其心理影响判若云泥。

Children are no less varied. The brain undergoes profound changes during puberty, meaning that any research on the effects of smartphone use needs to consider the developmental age of the children being studied as well as their precise smartphone habits.

青少年群体本就存在显著个体差异。青春期大脑经历剧烈重塑，这意味着相关研究必须同时考量受试者的发育阶段与具体使用习惯。

No studies have got this specific. Those that have come close, however, reveal that unfettered access to social media on smartphones during puberty, especially at critical moments when the brain is changing, may cause problems. One study, led by Amy Orben at the University of Cambridge, asked 17,409 people between the ages of ten and 21 how satisfied they were with their lives and how much they used social media. 

现有研究尚未细致至此。不过接近这类标准的研究显示，青春期（尤其是在大脑发育关键期）无节制使用社交媒体可能引发问题。剑桥大学艾米·奥尔本领导的研究团队对10-21岁年龄段的17409名受试者进行了生活满意度与社交媒体使用频率的追踪调查。

The findings, reported in 2022 in Nature Communications, show that girls who increased their social media use over the course of a year were significantly less satisfied with their lives if the increase took place when they were between 11 and 13. Boys showed the same trend when increases took place when they were 14 or 15 years old.

相关成果于2022年发表在《自然·通讯》上，研究结果显示，当女孩在11-13岁期间增加社交媒体使用时，其生活满意度会显著下降；男孩则在14-15岁呈现相同趋势。

How much of this will change by banning phones in schools is unclear. In a paper published in the Lancetin February, Victoria Goodyear at the University of Birmingham compared the mental well-being of students in schools that implemented restrictive smartphone policies with those with relaxed policies. She also monitored overall screentime. 

校园禁令的实际效果仍存疑。伯明翰大学维多利亚·古德伊尔今年2月在《柳叶刀》发表了一篇论文，对比了实施严格手机管制政策与宽松政策学校的学生心理健康状况，同时监测了总体屏幕使用时间。

Her results show that, though those who spent more time on a smartphone overall did have a decline in mental well-being, there was no difference between the two groups. She and her colleagues argue that setting up policies at schools alone is simply not enough.

结果显示，虽然整体屏幕使用时间越长，心理健康水平确实越低，但两组学生之间并未表现出显著差异。研究团队认为，单纯依靠校园政策收效有限。

Researchers are trying to paint a complete picture with both hands tied behind their back. According to Dr Orben, social-media companies routinely refuse to give independent researchers access to detailed data on the behaviours of their users. 

研究人员在数据受限的情况下艰难拼凑全貌。据奥尔本博士透露，社交媒体公司常以各种理由拒绝向独立研究者提供用户行为细节数据，迫使研究人员只能依赖总体屏幕时间这类粗略的替代指标。

This forces researchers to rely on less accurate proxy measures, like overall screentime. It also means that children playing educational games are being put in the same analytical bin as children who are on social media. A more nuanced picture of the effects of smartphones needs to be drawn.

这导致教育软件使用者与社交媒体沉迷者被归入同一分析范畴。要准确评估智能手机影响，亟需更精细的研究框架。

（红色标注词为重难点词汇）

重难点词汇：

mitigate [ˈmɪtɪɡeɪt] v. 减轻；缓解；缓和（不利影响、痛苦等）

plague [pleɪɡ] n. 瘟疫；灾祸；麻烦事 v. 困扰；折磨；使受煎熬

undergo [ˌʌndəˈɡəʊ] v. 经历；经受；遭受（变化、苦难等）

puberty [ˈpjuːbəti] n. 青春期；发育期

proxy [ˈprɒksi] n. 代理人；代表；委托书；替代物 adj. 代理的；代办的

nuanced [ˈnjuːɑːnst] adj. 有细微差别的；具有微妙特征的；表达细腻的