School smartphone researcher, Victoria Goodyear, is calling on the fitness industry to support young people in their mobile phone use

F itness professionals have a key role to play in mitigating the harms of social media, says school smartphone researcher, Victoria Goodyear.

Associate professor in pedagogy, physical activity and health at the University of Birmingham, Goodyear led The Smart School Study, which was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research. The three-year study, ran from 2022 to 2025 and involved 1,200 pupils from 30 UK schools with a mix of permissive policies and phone bans.

While researchers found no difference in outcomes for adolescents attending a school with a smartphone ban compared to those at schools which take a permissive approach, they did find that the more time young people spend on their phones and social media, the worse the outcomes in terms of mental wellbeing, anxiety, depression, physical activity levels, sleep, disruptive classroom behaviour and educational attainment in English and maths.

Turning to the positive
Goodyear told HCM this means tackling phone use in schools isn’t enough to make an impact, the issue needs a holistic, multi-faceted approach and the fitness industry has a role to play.

“There are two key priorities,” she says. “One is age appropriate design of phones and social media – embedding features and technologies that have children’s wellbeing in mind. We want to see measures that don’t promote endless scrolling that can be associated with keeping people on their phones and an end to algorithms that can promote harmful content.

“The second priority is to equip young people with digital skills that are conducive to their wellbeing. Education is also needed for parents, schools and teachers,” she said.

“It’s about building up a societal and ecosystem approach that’s addressing everybody involved with young people, rather than just addressing schools.”

“The fitness sector could actually lead the way in this,” says Goodyear, who is working with UK Active.

“Lots of the content young people look at is related to body image and we know fitness professionals are active on social media, so they have a responsibility to educate and be good role models.

“The fitness industry could take a lead role in showing how mobile phones can be used in positive ways to impact physical activity and sleep and that moderate levels of sensible, responsible and safe use could be supported at the same time.”

The Birmingham team is now working on producing actionable guidance resources.

More: www.hcmmag.com/mobiles