In the 1980s and early 1990s, when I was walking to the store to pick up a package of cigarettes for my mom, neither of us could have imagined a future in which that would not be allowed, nor in which there would be no smoking allowed in restaurants or for adults between the ages of 18 and 20.
Now, it’s equally challenging to imagine a world in which a child under the age of 16 can’t legally have a smartphone, but one official with the World Health Organization (WHO) would like for us to make that comparison and then make some version of it happen.
What might that look like in practice?
European Health Official Posits Smartphone Laws Similar To Tobacco Laws
Tobacco laws have changed significantly in the past half-century. Meanwhile, critics say that legislation has not kept up with technology in ways ranging from protecting identities and privacy to protecting minors.
At the European Health Forum in Austria, one European official spoke about how this might change in the future. Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, Europe’s director of country health policies and systems within the WHO, described legislation that would address minors and tech similarly to tobacco laws. According to Politico:
“With increasing evidence that problematic gaming and social media behavior is on the rise among adolescents in Europe, countries should take inspiration from other areas of public health where legislation has helped address potentially damaging habits — such as tobacco laws, she said…Measures including age limits, controlled prices and even no-go zones worked for regulating tobacco, so they could be taken as an example for how to curb damaging use of handheld devices like smartphones…”
Some Of This Legislation Is Already Progressing
In the U.S., laws limiting cell phone use in schools are already being passed. Currently, they’re patchy and state-by-state, and there’s already a lot of pushback. There’s proposed Federal legislation that would encourage schools to enforce bans but would not directly impose a ban.
Some European countries are also moving forward with bans on cell phone use in schools and, in some cases, at extracurricular activities. CNE News reported that as of 2024, Hungary, Greece, The Netherlands, and France will join Italy, Spain, and Albania in enforcing bans on cell phone use at schools.
Other Aspects Could be Harder To Implement In The U.S., Though Not Impossible
What about legislation forbidding parents from providing smartphones to kids under 12 or under 16?
Teenagers and tweens would absolutely balk at that, as would many parents and cell service providers, especially if the companies found themselves positioned as enforcers. However, there’s a lot of data available at this point about the effects on kids of unfettered access to the Internet and social media, so it wouldn’t be surprising if legislators found some way to address that in coming years.
As we’ve discussed before, a safety director at Instagram has suggested that her preference would be for parents to input an age when setting up their kids’ phones and have the app store police access by age.
The Future Of European Cell Phone Legislation
Azzopardi Muscat’s views on passing cell phone bans are not unique in Europe. England’s Education Select Committee has discussed the potential for a law that would make smartphones off-limits for children under the age of 16, according to the BBC.
They discussed dangers to minors, noting that most kids have a smartphone by age 12 and have been exposed to violent adult content by age 18. They’ve already passed legislation that attempts to prevent kids from this exposure, but it doesn’t entirely go into effect until 2026.
If England were to move forward with such a ban, it would be the strictest cell phone legislation in Europe but it could set a model for other countries to follow.
