The People Behind Your Tech Addiction Are Now Trying to Curb It

To improve classroom engagement and prioritize student mental health, Montpelier High School and Main Street Middle School instituted cell phone bans that require students to turn in their phones to be locked away during the school day. Teachers report more participation in class while students say the ban has led them to socialize with their peers more during breaks, and the library has even seen an increase in books being checked out.

Amy Edelstein thought that if high school students knew how to meditate they could learn how to focus, stay on track, and regulate negative self-talk. They could become better. So, in 2014 she started the Inner Strength Foundation to provide public schools with research-backed mindfulness curriculum. The curriculum has become a 12-week program, with instructors visiting classrooms in 19 schools across the city once a week.

Beauty pageants in Uganda are helping to "create awareness for skin cancer among persons with albinism, educate them about their rights, as well as foster capacity development." Although challenges persist, participants and local dermatologists say that the campaign has helped to increase education and decrease discrimination against those with albinism.

For those struggling with smartphone addiction, detox and counseling can prove beneficial. In South Korea, the government’s Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, alongside partners like the National Center for Youth Internet Addiction and the Youth Counseling and Welfare Center provide teens and elementary school students with detox programs to address the issue of internet and smartphone addiction. The students can attend summer camps where they switch off their phones, participate in activities, and attend counseling.

Trauma training for police and community workers teaches them how to make tough situations, such as the arrest of a parent, easier on young children. Painful memories can alter perceptions of police for a lifetime.

Para abordar la violencia en línea que sufren los niños en la era digital, iniciativas en varios países, como España, Rumanía y Ucrania, están utilizando el teatro, la formación en alfabetización mediática sobre IA y algoritmos, líneas telefónicas de denuncia anónima y la prohibición del uso de teléfonos en las aulas para ayudar a los jóvenes. Las diversas iniciativas han demostrado ser eficaces—por ejemplo, la prohibición del uso de teléfonos en toda la escuela en una región española resultó en una disminución del 27,42 % en los casos de ciberacoso entre 2023-2024.

In an effort to address online violence children face in the digital age, initiatives across several countries, including Spain, Romania, and Ukraine, are getting creative using theatre, media literacy training on AI and algorithms, anonymous reporting hotlines and classroom phone bans, among other strategies to help youth cope. The various initiatives have proven successful. For example, the school-wide phone ban in one Spain region resulted in a 27.42% decrease in cyberharassment cases between 2023-2024.

The Nigeria-based Bauchi Feminist Internet School is bridging the gender gap in digital literacy and safety in the country. The school teaches youth, primarily young women, how to safely use the internet and encourages them to advocate for change.

Amid a shortage of school counselors and social workers, Michigan school districts are emphasizing social-emotional learning with a new curriculum that draws on cognitive behavioral therapy. Through short lessons about how to disrupt negative thoughts and emotions, small-group sessions with mental health professionals, and expanded teacher training around suicide risk management, schools are creating a "culture of empathy" that students say has improved their sense of self-efficacy.

All over the country, students are using the internet to call out racism. Young people are publishing open letters, creating Change.org petitions and Google Docs “with lists of racist people in their classes, and using online platforms to organize protests.” In Boston, teens from the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center wrote an open letter asking school officials to address the wave of anti-asian hate crimes. After the letter, officials issued a resolution. Although, in some instances these actions do result in change, sometimes it can result in censorship towards students of color.