Ontario may fully ban cellphone use in schools
Education Minister Paul Calandra said this week that the government is also considering social media restrictions for kids
Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra said this week that the province is considering a total ban on cellphones in schools, in addition to restricting children’s social media use.
Since 2024, cellphones during the school day have been restricted, but Calandra said the province would look at tightening those rules further.
Related: High school students in Ontario will need to pass a financial literacy test in order to graduate
Premier Wab Kinew recently said his province of Manitoba may ban kids from accessing social media. Calandra was asked by reporters earlier this week if Ontarians should expect the same. Calandra responded, “absolutely,” but signalled the possibility of even stricter policies.
“We’re reflecting on a wider ban on cellphones. I think the evidence is becoming more and more clear that cellphone use in our schools–elementary and our secondary schools–anywhere on site, has become a problem,” he said. “We are going to be working closely with the federal government with respect to a broader social media ban, frankly, for kids under a certain age. I know the federal government is interested in that.”
Calandra noted that exceptions would be made for approved extenuating circumstances that would justify students having phones with them during the school day.
Related: Only 40 per cent of high school students met the provincial attendance threshold last year
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
