Most schools see cellphones as distractions and nuisances that must be managed and often prohibited from use in school buildings. Even so, teenagers are still texting frequently while in class.
12% of all students say they can have their cellphones at school at any time.
62% of all students say they can have their cellphones in school, just not in class.
24% of teenagers attend schools that ban all cellphones from school grounds.
- 65% of cellphone-owning teenagers at schools that completely ban phones bring their phones to school every day.
- 58% of cellphone-owning teenagers at schools that ban phones have sent a text message during class.
43% of all teenagers who take their cellphones to school say they text in class at least once a day or more.
- 64% of teenagers with cellphones have texted in class.
- 25% have made or received a call during class time.
Connecting to the Web
Cellphones can help bridge the digital divide by providing Internet access to students from low-income families. Teenagers from low-income families are much more likely than their peers to use a cellphone to access information on the Internet. In addition, minority teenagers are more likely than their white peers to use cellphones to access the Web.
- 44% of black teenagers
- 35% of Hispanic teenagers
- 21% of white teenagers
21% of teenagers who do not otherwise go online say they access the Internet on their cellphones.
41% of teenagers from households earning less than $30,000 annually say they go online with their cellphones. Seventy percent of teenagers in this income category have a computer in the home, compared with 92 percent of families from households that earn more.
