The Poisoned Apple: How Technology Companies Got Schools Hooked on Screens

By: Marian Macrae Herrmann

I. Screens in Schools

Children spend more time on screens today than they have at any other time in history.[1] They are also measurably more anxious than they have ever been.[2] Mental-health prescriptions for children are at an all-time high,[3] and mental-health disorders, childhood obesity, and chronic illnesses related to inactivity have skyrocketed in recent years among the K-12 population.[4] One 2021 study put American teens at an average of approximately 8 hours of screen time per day since COVID.[5]

Although multiple studies show connections between reduced performance on standardized tests and increased screen time[6], K-12 schools have massively increased screen time for educational purposes during the school day during this same time period.[7] While many teachers cite increased flexibility and engagement when lessons and learning activities are provided laptops or tablets, almost all teachers in one survey reported that they compete daily with school-provided devices for their students’ attention.[8] While estimates range from 3-4 hours of school-related screen time during the school day for teens and preteens to much more, some middle and high school students report being online at school nearly continuously.[9] Teachers describe students keeping a window open for watching YouTube videos while they work,[10] and some high school students report vision problems from staring at screens for too many hours.[11] Most districts issue each student their own tablet or laptop starting in kindergarten,[12] and elementary school teachers now routinely provide students with breaks to watch YouTube videos, styled as “brain breaks,”[13] though research shows screen time does not help children’s brains refocus.[14]

While most teachers report that districts provide some digital safeguards, they also report that most students find a way around them.[15] Digital distraction has become a daily trial for teachers and students alike, with many teachers describing their job as “playing whack-a-mole” with behavior.[16] Is this what we want for kids?

II. Adoption of Technology During COVID

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, when schools shut down, learning shifted online. [17] Most school districts gave laptops, Chromebooks, or tablets to students to take home so that they could access Zoom classes and lessons.[18] Unsurprisingly, technology companies sensed an opening.[19] Though many had been pushing computer science and coding in schools for years[20], COVID presented a unique opportunity.[21] Not only were students using computers for technology-centered subjects like coding or computer science, they now had to use them for every subject, from PE to music.[22] Not only that, but students as young as kindergarten now spent up to 8 hours a day on school-provided devices.[23]

Google provided cheap, durable Chromebooks to school districts at bundled prices, with Microsoft following suit.[24] Districts wanted all of their devices and platforms to integrate, so compatible platforms, products, and extensions led school districts toward identifying themselves as “Google Districts” or “Microsoft Districts.”[25] The trial by fire of school shutdowns gave billions of teachers and students a crash course in digital literacy, and school districts spent billions on technology to ensure that every student could access their digital lessons.[26]

III. Post-COVID Landscape

When schools re-opened, the Chromebooks did not disappear.[27] Now that districts had spent billions on take-home devices, programs, and platforms, they leaned into using them for daily in-person lessons in math, reading, and science.[28] With reading skills at new lows and absence rates at unprecedented levels, many teachers scrambled for any way to increase engagement.[29] Along the way, many teachers turned to free or low-cost materials provided by Google, Microsoft, and others technology companies.[30] These materials, for example, include a course designed for high school students which teaches them to design their own Google logo that jumps, spins, and dances.[31] Some technology companies leaned in further; Microsoft, for instance, provided a course in “AP Computer Science Principles with Minecraft Education.”[32]

Google and Microsoft have since sponsored thousands of teacher trainings, provided free lessons to millions of schoolchildren, and broadly marketed their AI chatbots to teachers and students alike.[33] This insider access has allowed the tech industry to shape education in ways that benefit them.[34] Technology companies sit on committees to help craft learning standards for public high school students, push back against AI-safety laws, and advocate new laws that require schools to teach industry-aligned subjects like computer science.[35] They finance national polls and reports to make products like AI chatbots more urgent priorities for school districts.[36] They also fund the National Parent Teacher Association and donate to local teachers’ unions.[37]

Parents, teachers and administrators may fairly wonder what technology companies gain from all of this. Many speculate that fostering goodwill is not their only motivation.[38] Technology companies  now have unique access to American schoolchildren, and are using it to shape the next generation of consumers.[39] Though industry leaders often cite the importance of private philanthropy in training young students for an “AI-first future,”[40] some parents and teachers have begun to push back.[41] In the words of one teacher “[t]his isn’t an alliance. We aren’t sitting at the table. We’re the meal.”[42]

IV. Legal Solutions

Concerns about corporate capture, screen addiction, and data privacy have led some parents to push for legislative solutions.[43] Utah and Alabama passed laws in 2026 restricting screen use in public schools and daycare centers for young children,[44] and at least 17 other states are considering bills to limit screen time in schools.[45] However, support for education technology is still strong in some quarters, with first lady Melania Trump at a recent event describing in rosy terms a future in which a robot named Plato would teach students instead of live teachers.[46] In addition, some laws as drafted are vague or define screen time narrowly. For instance, the Utah law defines screen time as “the time a student spends using an electronic device with a screen in a classroom setting when the use of the electronic device does not involve instruction, guidance, or interaction with a teacher. . . .”[47] (emphasis added) (cleaned up). Since much of students’ screen time does necessarily “involve” interaction with a teacher, it is unclear whether this represents meaningful change.

All the same, momentum is growing.[48] The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the country, recently agreed to limit screen time for young students.[49] A recent lawsuit by parents against the Lower Merion School District (LMSD) in Pennsylvania brought further attention to the issue, with parents accusing the superintendent and seven board members of creating “an environment that is unhealthy, unsafe and invasive for students.”[50] LMSD had recently repealed its longstanding policy allowing parents to opt out of internet-connected devices for students.[51] The move is an unusual one, since courts typically have not given veto power to parents over district policies.[52] However, it remains to be seen whether these recent lawsuits and enacted laws represent short-term interest on the part of parents and legislators or momentum that will lead to meaningful change.

 

[1] Media Use and Screen Time – Its Impact on Children, Adolescents, and Families, Am. Coll. of Pediatricians, https://acpeds.org/media-use-and-screen-time-its-impact-on-children-adolescents-and-families/ (last updated May 2020).

[2] Ellen Barry, Children’s Mental Health Visits Have Shot Up, Research Shows, N.Y. Times (May 26, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/science/anxiety-mental-health-children-increases-study.html.

[3] Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., et.al., The MAHA Report 17-18 (2025).

[4] Id. at 9.

[5] Common Sense Media, The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens 10 (2021).

[6] E.g. Xuedi Li et. al., Screen Time and Standardized Academic Achievement Tests in Elementary School, 8 Jama Network, Oct. 10, 2025, at 8.

[7] Natalie Proulx, Is There Too Much Screen Time in School? N.Y. Times (Mar. 17, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/learning/is-there-too-much-screen-time-in-school.html; Claire Cain Miller & Sarah Mervosh, How Much Screen Time Is Your Child Getting at School? We Asked 350 Teachers. N.Y. Times (Nov. 12, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/upshot/teachers-survey-chromebooks-class.html.

[8] Miller & Mervosh, supra note 7.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Proulx, supra note 7.

[13] E.g. Jenna Kimber, 9 YouTube Brain Breaks That Will Rock Your Students’ World, Bored Teachers (Dec. 19, 2025) https://www.boredteachers.com/post/youtube-brain-breaks.

[14] Screen Time and the Brain, Harv. Med. Sch. (2019), https://hms.harvard.edu/news-events/publications-archive/brain/screen-time-brain.

[15] Miller & Mervosh, supra note 7.

[16] Emily Oster, Part One: Kids, Screens, and Schools, Parent Data, https://parentdata.org/kids/kids-screens-and-schools-part-one/ (last updated Feb. 25, 2025).

[17] Nat’l Ctr. for Ed. Stat., U.S. Education in the Time of COVID 1 (2022).

[18] Id.

[19] Natasha Singer, How Big Tech Captured American Schools, N.Y. Times (Aug. 23, 2026), https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/23/business/schools-big-tech-google-microsoft.html.

[20] Id.

[21] Amy Rhoades, Big Tech Makes Big Data out of Your Child: The FERPA Loophole EdTech Exploits to Monetize Student Data; 9 Am. U. Bus. L. Rev. 445, 446 (2020).

[22] See Christa Kuebel & Elizabeth Haskett, “I’m Doing the Best I Can”: Teaching General Music in the Time of Covid-19, 41 Update: Applications of Research in Music Education 28, 32 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1177/87551233211067766.

[23] Singer, supra note 19.

[24] Id.

[25] Id.

[26] Alyson Klein, Federal Ed-Tech Dollars Are Running Out. What Happens Next? Ed. Week (Jan. 14, 2025), https://www.edweek.org/technology/federal-ed-tech-dollars-are-running-out-what-happens-next/2025/01.

[27] Brian A. Jacob & Cristina Stanojevich, Rewiring the classroom: How the COVID-19 pandemic transformed K-12 education, Brookings Inst. (Aug. 26, 2024), https://www.brookings.edu/articles/rewiring-the-classroom-how-the-covid-19-pandemic-transformed-k-12-education/.

[28] Id.

[29] Dana Goldstein, American Children’s Reading Skills Reach New Lows, N.Y. Times (Jan. 30, 2025), https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/29/us/reading-skills-naep.html.

[30] Singer, supra note 19.

[31] Id.

[32] Microsoft owns the popular computer game Minecraft, and “Minecraft Education” is a version of it designed specifically for schools. Minecraft Education, https://education.minecraft.net/en-us (last visited Oct. 4, 2026).

[33] Id.

[34] Id., Amy Rhoades, Big Tech Makes Big Data out of Your Child: The FERPA Loophole EdTech Exploits to Monetize Student Data; 9 Am. U. Bus. L. Rev. 445, 454 (2020) (tracking ways in which technology companies traffic in student data); Jessica Winter, What We Lost When Big Tech Took Over the Classroom, N.Y. Times (September 17, 2026), https://www.newyorker.com/culture/progress-report/what-we-lost-when-big-tech-took-over-the-classroom.

[35] Singer, supra note 19.

[36] Id. (explaining the various ways in which Google and Microsoft market AI chatbots to teachers and school districts).

[37] Id.

[38] Id.; Rhoades, supra note 34, at 448; Winter, supra note 34.

[39] Singer, supra note 19 (detailing ways in which technology companies shape educational markets); Rhoades, supra note 34 at 455 (tracking how technology companies track student eye movements in order to shape behavior).

[40] Singer, supra note 19.

[41] Alyson Klein & Lauraine Langreo, The Ed-Tech Backlash Is Here. What It Means for Schools., Ed. Week (Apr. 20, 2026), https://www.edweek.org/technology/the-ed-tech-backlash-is-here-what-it-means-for-schools/2026/04; Kevin Bushweller, What Educators Really Think About the Overuse of Tech in Schools, Ed. Week (Apr. 20, 2026), https://www.edweek.org/technology/what-educators-really-think-about-the-overuse-of-tech-in-schools/2026/04; Winter, supra note 34, Singer, supra note 19.

[42] Singer, supra note 19.

[43] Abbie Telgenhof, Elementary School Screen Time Limits Gain Momentum in 2026, MultiState (Apr. 8, 2026), https://www.multistate.us/insider/2026/4/8/elementary-school-screen-time-limits-gain-momentum-in-2026.

[44] Utah Code Ann. § 53G-7-228 (West 2026); Ala. Code § 26-24-60 (West 2026).

[45] Klein & Langreo, supra note 41; U.C.A. § 53G-7-228 (limiting 1:1 device ratios for students and directing schools to limit non-essential screen time); A.C. § 26-24-60 (prohibiting background television and most screen use in daycares and early childhood programs).

[46] Klein & Langreo, supra note 41.

[47] U.C.A. § 53G-7-228 (5)(c)(i).

[48] See generally Bushweller, supra note 42; Klein & Langreo, supra note 41; Telgenhoff, supra note 44. 

[49] Mason Leib, LA School District Approves New Screen Time Limits for Students, abc News (June 24, 2026), https://abcnews.com/GMA/News/la-school-district-approves-new-screen-time-limits/story?id=134161969.

[50] Lev. v. Lower Merion School District, EdTech Law Center: Active Cases (Aug. 26, 2026), https://edtech.law/cases/lower-merion-school-district/; Linda Jacobsen, Parents Demanding Tech Opt-Outs Take Their Fight to Federal Court, The74 (Sep. 8, 2026), https://www.the74million.org/article/parents-demanding-tech-opt-outs-take-their-fight-to-federal-court/.

[51] 141 K-12 Technology Use, Lower Merion School District: Technology Use in LMSD (Aug. 17, 2026), https://www.lmsd.org/departments/technology/use-in-lmsd#docaccess-ff5e76f4fad844b54a39ceb949373d35.

[52] Jacobsen, supra note 51.