Cellphone Bans: How Agents Can Help Schools and Businesses Create Policies  

• August 18, 2025

By Sharon Orr

For many teenagers, cellphones have become as necessary as breathing. The ubiquitous nature of the devices has spurred schools, workplaces and other entities to create policies that limit or even ban them.

An insurance agent’s role is not to help clients write their policies regarding phone use, but rather to offer risk control guidelines that might help them avoid needing to make a claim. When an organization is creating a new policy, such as one banning cellphones, it’s helpful to use the acronym DONUT as a guiding principle:

• D: Development. An organization needs to take time to develop any new policy. It should conduct research and talk to those who will be impacted.
• O: Opportunity. All key stakeholders should have the opportunity to offer input. This includes both staff members who will be enforcing the ban or limit and parents of teens, as well as the teenagers themselves.
• N: Notice. Organizations should never spring a cellphone ban on young people without any warning. They need to give plenty of notice through the channels teenagers most often use to communicate, such as texts and social media posts.
• U: Uniformity. Teens are much more likely to comply with a cellphone ban if they’re not alone. Adults in the organization should set a good example by putting away their devices as well.
• T: Timeliness. Enforcement of any cellphone ban should be consistent and timely. Staff members need to implement consequences at the time of the infraction—not a day or two later.

Implementing a Cellphone Ban

Because banning or limiting teen cellphone use is a complicated and nuanced undertaking in any organization, it’s important to first develop a comprehensive policy. This policy should take all the above points into consideration, allowing the organization wiggle room in case of extenuating circumstances.

It’s a good idea to implement the policy in a phased approach, rather than an all-or-nothing manner. For example, rather than starting out with a ban right away, organizations could instead first request teens keep their phones on silent. Then, gradually, they may be asked to turn them off completely or leave them in a storage place until the end of the day or specific event.

While banning or limiting cellphones is a decision for each entity to make, one more clear-cut area is using cellphones in bathrooms. Since they can take pictures with their phones, teens should not be allowed to use their phones in areas where other young people might be in a state of undress. It becomes a significant liability if inappropriate pictures surface.

Cellphone bans are becoming more commonplace, which bodes well for any organization that wants to go in that direction. The key is to build some flexibility into the policy, so leaders aren’t stuck when exceptions occur.

Exceptions to Blanket Policies

One of the challenges organizations face when creating a new policy is that it’s difficult to encompass every possible situation. Here are a few examples where organizations might need to make an exception to a cellphone ban:

1) Medical conditions. This is likely the most common exception. Some teens have a medical condition, such as diabetes, that requires constant monitoring. Medical equipment companies now offer apps that help them keep track of various aspects of their health, such as blood sugar levels and nutritional information about the food they eat. It’s not only inconvenient, but it can also be dangerous for an organization to deny a young person the use of their phone when they need it for such a purpose.

2) Educational purposes. Schools may want teens to use their cellphones for certain educational activities, such as using educational apps, taking part in group surveys or performing online research.

3) Emergencies. While policies can limit how students use their cellphones, it can be a sticky situation when they ban them altogether. Parents may have special situations for which they need to reach their child. Plans should be in place for addressing these types of situations.

Sharon Orr is director, risk control, education, at Church Mutual.