A brief history of geting phones out of public schools

The Anxious Generation book by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff was published in March 2024 and immediatley became a bestseller. The book has alerted many to the downstream effects of smartphones on adolescent cognitive, social, and emotional development. It was a call to me personally to get involved, even though our children got out high school by the early teens.

In our town, our superintendent and school committee were reluctant to pass a ban, one reason being the incoming calls they expected from parents. This has been a recurring theme among school administrators and teachers I've spoken with about the bills on Beacon Hill. "If only we could get come cover from the state, we'd love to get kids talking to each other again."

So I called my state representative, David Decoste and asked him how he could help. He said, "Well, let's file a bill together. Tell me what it should contain; we'll have legal clean it up, and then we can file it and take it from there". Great, I thought. Let's go!

That was in February 2025. The goal was to get phones out of schools by September.

I thought it would resonate, especially with the Anxious Generation on everyine's minds. Little did I know,

Encouragingly, the Massachusetts Senate passed its bell-to-bell bill (S.3164, advocating a smartphone ban in all grades of our public schools by a 38–2 vote in July.

The House created a new draft of their own approach, H4725 in November (2025).

The following April ('26) Boston 25 News reported Mass. lawmakers pass bill prohibiting children under 14 from social media, cell phones in school. (Read the article). All we needed was for the House and Senate to find common ground.

There are different approaches from the House and Senate versions, particularly social media, where the House proposes an age based ban (under age 14, and allowed only with parental approval for 15- and 16-year olds) while the Senate version had focused on the addictive mechanics of the platforms by enforcing stricter default safety settings )in S3164).

Disclaimer: these summaries were gathered on-line from a variety of sources. To be certain of the accuracy of these provisions, contact your Representative or Senator's office.

Below are committee members contact information. If you're in a district these lawmakers represent, contact them:

Sen. Brendan P. Crighton	Lynn	(617) 722-1350	brendan.crighton@masenate.gov
Sen. Michael J. Rodrigues	First Bristol & Plymouth	(617) 722-1114	Michael.Rodrigues@masenate.gov
Sen. Peter J. Durant	R, Worcester and Hampshire	(617) 722-1540	peter.durant@masenate.gov
Rep Alice Peisch	Wellesley	(617) 722-2783	Alice.Peisch@mahouse.gov
Rep. Frank A. Moran	D, 17th Essex (Lawrence)	617) 722-2180	Frank.Moran@mahouse.gov
Rep. David T. Vieira	R, 3rd Barnstable (Falmouth)	(617) 722-2230	David.Vieira@mahouse.gov

A forum with experts from psychology, technology, education, and politics may find a compromise solution. That's the history and the goal remains ahead of us.