Schools open door to online risks
Educational institutions’ growing reliance on social media groups to circulate academic information is inadvertently giving students greater access to smartphones and potentially harmful online content, raising concerns about their exposure to pornography and other inappropriate material.
Schools and colleges across the country routinely use Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp groups to share lesson plans, examination schedules, notices and study suggestions.
While such platforms offer a convenient means of communication, education stakeholders say the practice can also encourage students to spend more time on smartphones and expose them to alluring images, videos and other content unrelated to their studies.
Inquiries with the Ministry of Education and several educational institutions found that many student groups contain material well beyond essential academic information.
Some groups involving students of institutions even reportedly carry advertisements for panjabis, posters promoting individuals, coaching-centre advertisements targeting students seeking admission to elite schools, and messages advising parents to remain cautious.
Critics say such content effectively provides students with an additional reason to access smartphones, increasing their exposure to the wider online environment.
The issue drew wider attention after content creator Shampa Akhtar produced and uploaded social media content highlighting the potentially harmful aspects of such groups for students.
The content reportedly received 3.5 million likes.
Students themselves have also said that being unable to use mobile phones during school hours has helped them focus more on their studies and interact directly with classmates.
Teachers and parents said students previously spent considerable time checking notifications and messages, and some even used their phones in school toilets.
With phones unavailable, students now spend more time talking to one another and preparing for classes, while concerns about missing notifications have diminished, they said.
Some countries have responded by imposing restrictions on mobile-phone use in schools.
In China, smartphone use is prohibited for students under 15, while France has extended existing restrictions to middle and high schools, covering students roughly aged 15 to 18 from the start of the 2026-27 school year in September.
England introduced a ban on mobile-phone use across schools in June this year, with restrictions applying to classrooms and school campuses.
Schools, teachers and parents have subsequently reported perceived improvements in students’ concentration and face-to-face interaction.
Mexico is also set to introduce a ban on mobile-phone use in primary and secondary schools in November.
The government says the measure is intended to help students concentrate on their studies and protect them from harmful social-media addiction.
However, educationists point out that institutions themselves are helping to create the conditions for smartphone use by relying on social-media groups for routine academic communication.
Dr Alamgir Kabir, Acting Principal of Engineering University School and College, told The New Nation that sharing notes, sheets, schedules and suggestions through digital platforms was a necessary modern practice, but acknowledged that it could also contribute to students’ exposure to pornography and other harmful content.
“I believe parents need to be more vigilant in preventing this addiction,” he said, suggesting that students use basic ‘button phones’ outside the home and that smartphone use at home be restricted to academic purposes.
Professor Md Ahsan Parvez, Chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Comilla, said curbing smartphone addiction among students was essential.
“Students shouldn’t really have smartphones in their possession. Institutions that create these groups should register them using parents’ phone numbers; that way, the potential harm is minimised,” he told The New Nation.
He noted that coaching centres were increasingly using such groups because schools and colleges could not accommodate all students.
Registering separate SIM cards in students’ names, he said, would be counterproductive.
He added that around 80 per cent of students nowadays did not listen to their parents, leaving many guardians feeling helpless.
However, evidence on the effectiveness of outright bans remains mixed. A University of Birmingham study conducted in February found no direct evidence that school mobile-phone bans improved students’ academic performance, grades or mental health.
Published in The Lancet, the study surveyed 1,227 students at 30 secondary schools in England found that prolonged smartphone and social-media use was associated with poorer mental health, reduced physical activity, inadequate sleep, lower grades and disruptive classroom behaviour.
The findings suggest that while regulating smartphone use may address classroom distractions, the wider challenge lies in how students use digital platforms-and whether educational institutions can communicate essential information without unnecessarily exposing them to the broader risks of social media.
