If You Give Me A Smartphone

Award-winning director Brendan Gibbons and producer Aaron Rosenbloom have teamed up to write and direct a new PSA for Phone-Free Schools Movement, produced by Station Film. The black-and-white PSA film is stark and dramatic, featuring children ranging in age from 6 to 13 who are on the brink of getting their first smartphones. The spot uses conditional logic – i.e., if “this,” then “that” – with the kids stating upfront, “If you give me a smartphone …” then sees them round out their thoughts with frank, unsettling responses about what can happen when you rely too much on technology, especially at an early age.

Phone-Free Schools Movement is a nonprofit organization rooted in one simple, powerful belief: Kids deserve a school day that protects their well-being. Its mission is to help K–12 schools create and implement bell-to-bell phone-free environments where students can focus, connect and grow—without the constant pull of phones and social media.

New York State plans to implement restrictions on cell phone use in schools K-12 for the 2025-2026 school year. Other states that will ban or restrict cell phone use for the upcoming school year include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.

The PSA film’s cast is a mix of real people and actors, and locations include upstate New York, Brooklyn and Los Angeles. “You won’t see any palm trees,” co-director Rosenbloom said. “We wanted to create a feeling of suburban Americana so everyone could relate to it.”

The new film drives viewers toward phonefreeschoolsmovement.org—a central hub for advocates, school administrators, and legislators interested in creating phone-free educational environments. The site offers a wealth of resources designed to assist schools in smoothly transitioning to a phone-free setting.