France wants to test a ban on mobile phones in schools for students up to 15 years old. The aim is to give children a “digital break”. If the ban is successful, it could be implemented nationwide from January.
Nearly 200 secondary schools will take part in the experiment, which will require young people to hand over their mobile phones at reception upon arrival. The ban on the devices goes beyond a 2018 law that banned primary and secondary school students from using their mobile phones on school premises but allowed them to keep them.
Announcing the trial on Tuesday, acting Education Minister Nicole Belloubet said the aim was to give young people a “digital break”. If the trial is successful, the ban will be introduced in all schools from January, Belloubet said.
A commission appointed by President Emmanuel Macron expressed concern that excessive screen exposure among children is having a detrimental effect on their health and development.
A 140-page report published in March concluded that there was “a very clear consensus on the direct and indirect negative effects of digital devices on sleep, on sedentary lifestyles, on lack of physical activity and on the risk of overweight and even obesity… as well as on vision.”
It said that the “hyperactive” use of phones and other digital technologies was not only harmful to children, but also to “society and civilization”.
The report recommends controlling children’s mobile phone use in stages: no mobile phones before the age of at least 11, mobile phones without internet access between the ages of 11 and 13, and mobile phones with internet access but no access to social media before the age of 15.
It was also suggested that children under the age of three should not be exposed to digital devices at all, as they are “not necessary for the healthy development of the child”.
“We need to put the digital tool in its place. Until at least the age of six, a child does not need a digital device to develop,” said Servane Mouton, a neurologist and neurophysiologist who was part of the commission. “We need to re-teach parents how to play with their children.”
Banning mobile phones in schools has long been a topic of discussion across Europe. In countries where mobile phone bans exist, the ban is usually limited to the use of mobile phones and does not require children to hand over their phones.
In Germany, there are no formal restrictions, but most schools have banned the use of mobile phones and digital devices in the classroom, except for teaching purposes. In Dutch secondary schools, a quasi-ban has been in place since the beginning of this year, but as a recommendation and not a legal obligation. From this school year, the directive also applies to primary schools.
Italy was early to introduce mobile phone bans: it introduced one in 2007, relaxed it in 2017 and reintroduced it in 2022. It applies to all age groups.
In February this year, the UK government issued guidelines for schools “banning the use of mobile phones throughout the school day”, but stressed that decisions about mobile phone use were up to individual school principals.
Portugal is trying a compromise by introducing a certain number of cellphone-free days in schools each month, while in Spain schools in some autonomous regions have imposed a ban but there is no nationwide ban.
