Eton bans smartphone for new pupils and will issue boys with an offline Nokia handset instead in bid to improve mental health and behaviour

Eton College has banned new pupils from bringing smartphones into school - and will issue them with a basic Nokia handset instead. Eton has banned new pupils from bringing smartphones into school in a new crackdown The elite £52,000-a-year private school has written to families and said pupils will be given a basic Nokia model that can't access the internet, which SIM cards can be placed into Eton currently doesn't allow younger boys to have their phones on them during the day, and those teens in the first three years of the college must hand in their devices at night. Rachel Harper, headteacher of St Patrick's National School in Greystones, near Dublin, has spearheaded the initiative to to withhold phones from children Meanwhile in England, St Albans has echoed the clampdown, with some 20 local headteachers having called for the Hertfordshire city to become Britain's first smartphone-free area for children under the age of 14. St Albans is bidding to become Britain's first smartphone-free city for children aged under 14 Grandmother Sian Jay, 61, said in St Albans: 'I think it would be impressive to not let your kids have a phone until 14 – but I do think it's good as I worry for children' 'You hear awful things about what children end up seeing online – and there's a lot of concern around social media and mental health.