motion_title: New Clause 36: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
motion_text: New Clause 36 - Action to promote children’s wellbeing in relation to mobile phones and social media
  “(1) Within 12 months of the passing of this Act, the Secretary of State must, for the purposes of promoting the wellbeing of children—
  (a) direct the Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom (“the UK CMOs”) to prepare and publish advice for parents and carers on the use of smartphones and social media use by children,
  (b) publish a plan for research into the impact of use of social media on children’s wellbeing, and
  (c) require all schools in England to have a policy that prohibits the use and carrying of certain devices by pupils during the school day.
  (2) Any advice published under subsection (1)(a) must have regard to—
  (a) the paper published on 7 February 2019 entitled “United Kingdom Chief Medical Officers’ commentary on 'Screen-based activities and children and young people’s mental health and psychosocial wellbeing: a systematic map of reviews'”, and
  (b) any scientific or other developments since the publication of that paper which appear to the UK CMOs to be relevant.
  (3) Any policy implemented under subsection (1)(c)—
  (a) may provide for exemptions from the policy, or for an alternative policy, for sixth form students, in so far as such exemptions or alternative policies do not negatively impact upon the wider policy;
  (b) may provide for exemptions for medical devices;
  (c) is to be implemented as the relevant school leader considers appropriate; and
  (d) may, where implemented by a boarding school or residential school, include appropriate guidance for the use of certain devices during other periods which their pupils are on school premises, subject to such policies safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in accordance with relevant national standards.
  (4) For the purposes of this section—
  “certain devices” means mobile phones and other devices which provide similar functionality and whose main purpose is not the support of learning or study;
  “the Chief Medical Officers of the United Kingdom” means the Chief Medical Officers for—
  (a) England,
  (b) Wales,
  (c) Scotland, and
  (d) Northern Ireland
  “the school day” includes all time between the start of the first lesson period and the end of the final lesson period.”—(Laura Trott.)