Humanity has faced collective action problems ever since we lived in caves. You can just imagine the scene: ‘Listen, Beryl, I’ve been hunting wildebeest all day and really need some shut eye. Could you and Steve keep watch for that sabre-toothed tiger while I have a sleep tonight?’
The response matters – do Beryl and Steve acquiesce and sacrifice their own wellbeing by keeping watch so their cavemate can sleep and be ready to hunt again tomorrow? This would benefit the group, after all. Or do they give into the fatigue they’re also feeling after a long day of trying to start a fire and just hope the sabre-tooth is taking the night off? The consequences might be disastrous.
Collective action problems continue to vex societies to this day and one has been highlighted in the Middle School as we approach the final term of 2026. It’s the problem of poor sleep among young people. You might not immediately think that whether a teenager gets to bed on time is a collective issue at all, but it is – because of mobile phones.
Numerous Middle School students have reported poor sleep this term due to being on their phones until the early hours of the morning. Each of them understands that doing so is bad for their health, their learning and their mood the next day. And none of them is surprised to hear of the negative long-term effects poor sleep has on humans, and especially on humans who are still developing. Regardless, the reason inevitably comes up that these students’ friends are on their phones too, and nobody wants to miss out on the chat. So, they stay up.
This significant problem has two solutions. One solution is for parents to insist that no child takes their mobile phone into their bedroom at night. Phones should charge overnight in a central place in the house such as the kitchen, without exception. This removes the temptation to keep sending just one last message, and then another, and then another. Such a practice is good for everyone’s sleep, too – not just young people.
The second solution is for families to adhere to Australia’s social-media ban for under-16s. It’s now been over nine months since the legislation took effect and, in that time, numerous other countries have followed suit, which is the good news.
The bad news is that staff have noticed the creeping return to social media usage among students who are very much under the age of 16. Once again, the students understand the harms of the technology. Many are aware of the $23 billion settlement paid by Meta to resolve a lawsuit over social media addiction and what this says about the technology. But they continue to use it.
We teachers understand the challenges parents face when their children want something that is bad for them – to hold the line, or give in? When ‘everyone’ is doing it, it’s even harder. Hence, the collective action problem. If every family agreed to adhere to the ban, and upheld it, no child could reasonably feel aggrieved. And their friends wouldn’t be on social media either. It’s a goal worth pursuing.
We all want better sleep. And in most cases, we know how to get it. But we need collective will to make it a reality. Which is, frankly, a less challenging problem than deciding between sleep and looking out for a sabre-toothed tiger.
David Martin
Deputy Head of Middle School – Student Learning
