While the British Prince George, the eldest son of Prince William, begins the experience of studying in one of the most prestigious boarding schools in Britain, a strict regime awaits him, which is not limited to study and daily discipline, but also extends to the way he communicates with his family. The phone he will be allowed to use will not be a modern smartphone, but rather a traditional device limited to calls and text messages, within the framework of a policy followed by Eton School regarding the use of phones and electronic devices.
According to the Independent newspaper, Prince George, who is 13 years old, began his life at Eton College, but he will only have a simple mobile phone to communicate with his home, the traditional type that does not provide access to the Internet.
The heir to the throne experiences life in a boarding school, and the strict rules and discipline imposed by this educational environment. The policy of the long-standing school, located in Berkshire County, is to allow students to use phones to make calls and send text messages only, instead of smartphones that allow connecting to the Internet and using various applications.
This policy was announced in 2024, and is likely to be a relief to Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton, who have spoken on several occasions about children's use of smartphones, and expressed concerns about the potential impact of these devices on their mental health.
In November 2025, Prince William said: “Our children don’t have phones. "I think when George gets to high school, he might get a phone that doesn't have Internet access."
He added: “I think that owning a phone that is limited to calls and text messages, those huge old phones, is acceptable; The problem lies in providing access to the Internet.”
For her part, Kate Middleton addressed the dangers of children spending long periods of time in front of screens, in an article titled: “The Power of Human Connection in a World of Attention Distraction.” In the article, which she published in collaboration with Professor Robert Waldinger of Harvard Medical School, she said: “Although digital devices promise to keep us connected, they often achieve exactly the opposite.”
Restrictions on iPad devices
Eaton's restrictions are not limited to smartphones; The school has also set rules for the use of iPads, which students rely on in some aspects of the educational process.
Under these rules, students must use a “specially designed secure browser” on their iPads, allowing them to access only a specific list of websites approved by teachers.
This decision came after the school received complaints from parents in 2024 about students using iPads to play games, instead of focusing on lessons or completing schoolwork.
The decision to ban smartphones, which also came into effect in 2024 in the school for boys between the ages of 13 and 18, came, according to the school, after a periodic review of its policies related to mobile phones and electronic devices.
Strict conditions
The Eton study experience is not limited to academic achievement and sporting activities, as the school is also known for instilling the values of self-reliance and leadership in its students, while requiring them to complete a number of non-academic tasks on their own.
The school's admission process is very strict, as students undergo rigorous tests before enrolling, while parents pay annual fees amounting to 63,298 British pounds, or about 84,119 dollars.
The royal family has a long-standing connection to Eton; Prince William studied at the school for 5 years, starting in 1995, before leaving to join the University of St Andrews. As for Prince Harry, he joined the school three years after his brother.
Social anxiety may begin with a fleeting feeling of shyness or nervousness when speaking to others, but for some people it may turn into a condition that affects school, work, and relationships, and prompts them to avoid social situations in which they need or want to participate.
Social anxiety disorder is thought to affect up to 12 per cent of people at some point in their lives, with an even greater number experiencing varying degrees of anxiety in social situations. A study conducted by the University of Chichester showed that more than a fifth of university students face some form of social anxiety during their school years, which is linked to decreased academic achievement, the quality of relationships, and feelings of isolation.
The problem becomes more apparent for students who leave their family home for the first time, as they find themselves facing a new environment and high social expectations, including making friends and integrating into university life.
When does anxiety become a problem?
According to the BBC, it is normal to feel nervous when meeting new people, entering an unfamiliar place, conducting a job interview, or speaking in front of a group. But anxiety becomes more problematic when it starts preventing a person from doing the things they want or need to do.
Neil Greening, head of the UK Social Anxiety Alliance, says some people treat anxiety as a character flaw, rather than recognizing it as a known condition for which they can get help.
The condition may appear in the form of signs that are sometimes difficult to notice, such as silence, avoiding participation in conversation, being satisfied with short answers, being busy on the phone to avoid interacting with others, or staying near a known person during gatherings.
Some also resort to what are known as “safety behaviors,” such as avoiding eye contact, thinking about each sentence before saying it, or sticking to conversation topics they consider safe, in an attempt to reduce the possibility of embarrassment.
Anxiety does not end when the situation ends
One problem with social anxiety is that its effect may persist even after the situation has passed.
The case of Mary, a pseudonym for a young woman who has suffered from social anxiety since adolescence, illustrates how this can become a cycle. She would feel physically tense while talking to new people, and then replay the details of the situation in her mind later, searching for the mistakes she thought she had made.
She says that her anxiety reached a point that made her avoid gatherings at the university, while she describes the feeling that accompanies social situations as being similar to separation from oneself.
How can we break the cycle of anxiety?
Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the methods used to deal with social anxiety, as it helps to examine negative thoughts and change some patterns of thinking and behavior.
Professor David Clarke, a psychologist at Oxford University, says that one important step is to stop excessive self-monitoring while interacting with others.
Instead of worrying about questions like, “Do I look nervous?” or “Do I look stupid?” He advises directing attention to the conversation, the other person, and the surrounding environment.
It also encourages testing fears through small steps, such as asking a question in a meeting or speaking in front of a group, and then observing what actually happens rather than assuming the worst outcomes.
It is also important to gradually abandon “safety behaviors,” such as avoiding eye contact or always staying next to someone with whom one feels safe.
Scientists analyzing transplants have discovered that organs quickly adjust their biological age to match the recipient's body after surgery.
The study, reported by The Independent from the journal Nature, revealed that older hearts transplanted into younger recipients showed clear signs of biological regeneration, while younger hearts transplanted into older bodies aged at an accelerated pace.
Dr. Bartley Griffiths, a surgeon at the University of Maryland who performed the first transplant of a genetically modified pig heart, said: “This remarkable study is consistent with new science aimed at understanding aging and the influence of blood factors that may hold answers to the ‘Fountain of Youth’.”
The researchers initially tested this theory by transplanting hearts into mice belonging to three different age groups. Four to six months after these operations, analysis of the mice's tissues revealed that DNA methylation, a key chemical marker used to measure cellular aging, had changed radically to reflect the host body's biological clock.
To check whether the same rules apply to humans, lead author Jesse Boganic and his team evaluated biopsy samples from 11 human heart transplants at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. These human cases included large age differences between donors and recipients, ranging between 8 and 50 years.
Dr. Boganic said: “What is striking is that we found exactly the same effects that we observed in mice.”
Analysis of electronic medical records, one year after surgery, revealed that key indicators, including heart rate, muscle thickness and exercise capacity, were closer to the biological age of the recipient than to the original age of the donor.
“Some, but not all, of the functional indicators are consistent with the prediction that these older hearts in younger bodies functioned as if they were biologically younger, and vice versa,” Boganic explained, adding that some physical changes remain irreversible.
The researchers confirmed that - despite the change in the heart's internal clock - there were no changes in the biological age of the other surrounding organs in the recipients' bodies.
Medical experts now believe that this discovery may revolutionize; Not only in the mechanism of distributing donated organs, but also in the science of aging itself, and in understanding the possibility of reversing its course.
While cardiac surgeons had previously avoided transplanting hearts from older donors into younger patients, these findings may shake up long-standing clinical assumptions.
Dr. Griffiths wondered: “Will there be a rush now to use the hearts of older donors, not just in older recipients? “Perhaps by targeting young patients who might mitigate advanced cellular senescence in an older organ?”
He added: “This work has the potential to increase the use of older donor hearts, and most likely all organs, for the benefit of young people waiting on organ transplant lists. What an exciting trip!
