UAE Teachers: ‘Schools Fuelled Screentime Crisis, But Phone Bans Miss the Point'&hellip – SchoolsCompared.com

For over a decade, digital technology has been promoted as the future of education. But today, a growing number of UAE school leaders are expressing serious concerns — not just about how devices are used, but about the role that schools themselves have played in normalising often near-constant screen exposure for children.
On November 2nd 2025, Jess Asato, the MP for Lowestoft, Suffolk in the UK called for an Australian-style social media ban for under-16s as a way to protect children’s mental health. from December 10th, in Australia, social media firms, including Meta, TikTok and YouTube, must ensure children under 16 do not have accounts on their platforms. Roblox is imposing sweeping changes that place all users into age groups, so that children can only chat with others in similar ranges, this with very limited exceptions for “trusted connections”. Children under 13 sill now also need parental permission to access chat features in experiences and can no longer use Roblox Chat to communicate with others outside of experiences at all. Direct chat is off by default for those under 16 and requires age estimation before it can be enabled.
In the UAE, momentum for change is  now coming from schools, and indirectly through parents who, as our mail box tells us, have almost universally had enough.  Leading the charge from schools is Deborah Jones, Deputy Head Pastoral and DSL at Dubai College, who delivers a stark warning:
“The most insidious element of screen time invasion isn’t the smartphone alone. WhatsApp, TikTok, Insta, Snapchat, even collaborative documents, are all available on student laptops, iPads, Chromebooks and, increasingly, smartwatches. Even without phones in their pockets, children are only ever a click, a swipe, or a ping away from distraction, comparison, bullying, or worse.”
While many schools have introduced phone bans or pouch systems,  Ms Jones believes these interventions are missing the bigger picture:
“Our classrooms may be phone-free, but they are rarely screen-free. The line between learning and lurking has vanished. We’re now all beginning to realise what we’ve created: a generation of children who are online before they are ready, exposed to pressure, content, and behaviour far beyond their developmental capacity to manage it.”
Ms Jones is clear-eyed about schools’ own complicity in creating this screen-hooked reality:
“As educators we’ve been complicit in this movement — and often enthusiastically. As part of inspection frameworks and digital learning strategies, we were encouraged, if not mandated, to demonstrate technology use in every lesson. The idea was that digital fluency was essential to the very best of modern education and on the surface, it made sense.“
But with hindsight, Jones says, the trade-offs have become impossible to ignore:
“It’s now becoming clear what we actually achieved. We set the expectation that children should be online, always, for classwork, for research, for homework, for group projects. We taught them implicitly that learning, communicating, and even thinking happens through a screen. It’s no surprise that, when the school day ends, they stay online so we must work to find a productive equilibrium that ensures students have more of a balance.
“I have no doubt that we will look back on this decade of increasing technology use with some element of regret that we weren’t more cautious. At first, the benefits seemed too good to ignore — productivity, innovation, engagement. Then came the studies, the mental health crises, the addictions…”
As Ms Jones suggests, a wide body of research now links excessive screen exposure to rising levels of anxiety, sleep disturbance, attention issues, and reduced wellbeing in children, to name a few — with institutions like the American Academy of Paediatrics and the OECD(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) cautioning against unstructured digital use in schools.
This growing body of evidence has prompted formal international calls for action. In April 2024, nearly 500 scientists from across Europe and beyond signed a call for a moratorium on digital learning rollouts in schools, arguing that in the absence of robust research, schools are effectively conducting a live experiment on children. The open letter, coordinated by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany, calls on governments to pause the large-scale deployment of education technologies until their long-term impacts are better understood:
“We must first assess the consequences of digital technologies, before further experiments are carried out on children and young people in need of protection, with an uncertain outcome. They only have one life and one educational biography – we must not treat them carelessly.”
Yet even in the face of mounting international evidence, Jones notes that much of the global political response remains frustratingly narrow:
“Still, global political posturing is only about smartphone bans in schools.”
The real concern, she says, is the growing reliance on an ecosystem of educational technology — from laptops and tablets to collaborative documents and always-on learning platforms — which are now deeply embedded into daily teaching and homework. This has normalised a model of screen-based education that is rarely questioned, yet increasingly difficult to regulate.
In a small but significant first step, Dubai College has now banned both smartphones and smartwatches, recognising their impact not just on attention, but behaviour:
“Having reflected as a school, we have taken a stand and included banning smart watches along with smart phones and limited device use around the campus.
“Smartwatches have quietly slipped under the radar in schools. They look harmless, even helpful… but they are just another portal. With notifications, app alerts and even voice replies available on a wrist, they allow students to stay digitally connected, constantly checking for the next dopamine hit.”
These bans are just the beginning of what needs to be a wider cultural shift, says Jones:
“We understand we need to be agile, responsive and reflective about our policies and practices, ensuring these prioritise human development over digital convenience.
“If we want our children to switch off, we’re going to have to lead the way.”
For Cameron Clark, Deputy Headteacher at Jumeira Baccalaureate School, smartphone misuse has become one of the biggest barriers to student wellbeing. The school enforces a clear policy: mobile phones must remain off and in bags all day. Repeat misuse results in confiscation and eventual daily hand-ins. But Mr Clark is frank about the limitations schools face:
“I wish it could be realistic [to have truly smartphone-free schools], as most pastoral concerns we have are centred around inappropriate use of social media on the students’ smartphones and tablets.”
He explains that even with strict school-level policies, meaningful enforcement is difficult without regulatory backing:
“I have read about a Ministry Of Education directive stating that schools can confiscate phones if students were to use them in schools that are not allowing smartphones. The concern is that we hand it back at the end of the day and the students repeat the misdemeanour. If you try and confiscate over a longer period of time we would have negative feedback from parents insisting that their child needs the phone for the journeys to and from school.”
Mr Clark has also witnessed the limits of certain phone control systems such as pouches firsthand:
“Many students will refuse to hand in their phone, claim they do not have one, or even hand in a second phone as a decoy — this has happened in the past.”
Mr Clark believes the only real solution would be support at the regulatory level:
“We could push the no phones in school/hand them in movement if we were better supported regarding the confiscation of the phone. For example, a student caught with a phone is placed in internal suspension as a consequence — this could only be backed up if the KHDA or MOE were to support this action. Almost if they were to add this to the school KHDA contract that parents sign.”
Mr Clark says one of the clearest signs of shifting attitudes towards screentime has come from families themselves:
“We’ve received more emails than ever before from parents asking for clarity on our policies and raising concerns about screen time.”
This rising parental pushback is now taking a more organised form. The Screenwise Child UAEmovement — a grassroots initiative encouraging families to delay smartphones until at least age 14 and social media until 16 — has gained significant traction across the country. More than 70 schools have adopted its principles, signalling a growing appetite for coordinated action from both educators and parents to reduce harmful digital exposure.
This view is echoed across schools, with leaders emphasising that adult behaviour — not rules — often shapes student norms more than any policy can. James Lynch, Principal of Ambassador International Academy, and Alison Lamb, Principal of Dubai Heights Academy, both highlight the importance of teachers and parents modelling screen use themselves. Mrs Lamb says:
“Children learn by observing the behaviours of the adults around them… We may, at times, unintentionally set a bad example by being overly dependent on our devices. Recognising this is important because it allows us to take steps to be more mindful of our own screen habits.”
Mr Lynch agrees:
“Children are highly influenced by the behaviour they observe, so it is essential for adults to set a positive example… We advise parents to establish screen-free routines at home, such as device-free meals or dedicated family time.”
Both agree that total avoidance of technology is unrealistic, but purposeful and limited use must become the new norm — with parents and educators working in tandem to model what balance can look like.
Naomi Williams, Principal of South View School, agrees that screentime is one of the most complex issues facing schools today — but warns that simple bans can lead to unintended consequences. She cites the example of one Dubai school, where the battle against secretive phone use has led to extreme measures, including the removal of external bathroom doors, so that teachers can check that prolonged covert phone use does not take place by the bathroom sinks.  
Ms Williams says she is wary of reactive measures that don’t teach students how to manage technology themselves:
“At some point they have to learn how to use it. If they’ve been kept away from smartphones and then they’re suddenly given it, what happens then?”
At the beginning of this academic year South View implemented a no-phone policy during school hours — and Williams says it’s made a clear difference, at least during the school day. But she believes parents must step up to take charge at home too:
“We’ve had parents contact us about social media incidents that take place outside of school hours — on WhatsApp, over the weekend — and ask what the school is going to do about it. But we have to draw a boundary.”
“The conversation must start at home. Parents need to take responsibility too. Schools can do a lot, but we can’t do it alone.”
The shift from unquestioned digital enthusiasm to greater caution amongst parents and educators in the UAE is unfolding at a pivotal moment. It has recently been announced that in 2025, the UAE will roll out Artificial Intelligence as a core curriculum subject in all public schools from KG to Grade 12 — a clear indication that the government remains committed to technological innovation in education. How this will square with the growing concern about the pervasive use of screens in everyday classroom life remains to be seen, but it’s clear that the question is no longer whether technology belongs in education; rather, it is how, when, and why it should be used — and whether children are developmentally ready for the level of exposure they now face.
Back at Dubai College, Deborah Jones delivers an urgent reflection:
“We thought tech in classrooms was the future. Now we’re watching it hijack the present. Unless we act, tomorrow belongs to the algorithm.”
Her message — echoed by many UAE educators — isn’t a call to reject the digital world, but to reclaim balance and agency within it.
With scientific warnings mounting and parent-led movements like Screenwise Child UAE gaining traction, changes that once seemed radical — like banning devices in high-tech, high-performing schools — are now becoming tangible, even common, first steps.
As the KHDA have already set out, in its new ground-breaking regulations and guidance for nursery schools and Early Childhood Centres, it expects schools and families to work together to ensure that screen time guidelines for children are mutually agreed and adhered to.
This may just be the shape of things to come for all children…  After all, if we’re serious about protecting children’s development, relationships, and mental health, then it’s surely crucial that schools, parents, and policymakers must move forward on the issue of screentime — deliberately, and together. Many argue that it should not need a regulator to start working out best practice in this area and introducing it. 
Time waits for no one, and our children, as it seems increasingly clear, do not have time on their side. 
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