This project examines how a comprehensive approach to phone-free schools can promote adolescent agency and character virtues through a Digital Citizenship and Cyberwisdom curriculum (DC&C). Leveraging a natural experiment as schools change phone policies, we will conduct a four-phase project. It includes formative research, iterative co-design with educators and students, a randomized controlled trial, and coordinated implementation across public secondary schools in Querétaro, a state in México implementing a statewide phone-free school mandate. A Youth Advisory Board will amplify student voices.
The six-session DC&C curriculum develops cyberwisdom, a multi-component meta-virtue that integrates moral, civic, intellectual, and performance virtues to help youth navigate online experiences. Because phone-free policies rely on external control, this design pairs restriction with instruction, supporting practical judgment, self-regulation, and moral motivation needed to exercise agency and use digital tools wisely when restrictions end.
This work is particularly urgent in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where most adolescents live, are coming online for the first time and face increased risks, with Mexico as one example. Partnership with the Secretary of Education enables scalable implementation and rigorous evaluation.
Outputs include a DC&C program, publications, youth-informed guidance, and a strengthened network of educators and researchers. Outcomes include increased cyberwisdom virtues, enhanced adolescent agency, and evidence on implementing phone restrictions while cultivating character and digital citizenship. Few programs in LMICs combine restrictions with culturally tailored, virtues-based digital citizenship education; this project addresses that gap and offers a replicable model for scaling character-driven digital engagement.
