France It plans to strengthen the prohibition of the use of ‘smartphones’ in secondary education schools from September, when it will begin to store the devices at a box office or in a sealed bag at the beginning of the educational day, with the aim that students between 11 and 15 years cannot use them at any time in the school premises, and collecting them at the end of the day.
The French government has already banned the use of mobile phones in schools in 2018, when it explained that the ‘smartphones’ had to remain off and stored in the student’s backpacks throughout the school day. However, although they were prohibited even during the break, it has not been possible to avoid its full use.
It is now intended to strengthen this measure, forcing students between 11 and 15 years to leave their mobile devices stored at a box office or sealed bag at the beginning of the school day, so that only they can be accessed once the time has been completed and the school time is abandoned.
This has been indicated by the Minister of Education of the Government of France, Elisabeth Borne, in an appearance in the Senate, who has moved that it is a measure with which it is intended to ensure that minors are completely separated from their ‘smartphones’ during the school day in secondary schools as of September, as they have collected media such as The Guardian and Le Figaro.
“At a time when the use of screens is widely questioned due to its numerous harmful effects, this measure is essential for the school’s well -being and success,” Borne said.
The objective of avoiding the use of the ‘smartphones’ in minors is preceded by a test that the French government refers as a “digital pause”, a pilot program that has been carried out in around one hundred French secondary schools during the current course to check the effects of not using mobile devices throughout the day in more than 50,000 students over 11 years.
In this test, the students delivered their ‘smartphones’ when they arrived at the school, storing them at a box office or in a bag sealed with an electronic system, so that it is guaranteed that they cannot be accessed until the day ends, when they can pick them up at the exit and the electronic system unlocks the closure of the bag.
As Borne has pointed out, this test has offered positive results, with improvements in the environment between students in schools and a “mass support” both by parents and teachers.
With all this, the minister has also indicated that, to implement these measures, it will be the schools themselves in charge of choosing the method and logistics to store the ‘smartphones’ of the students, while he has nuanced that he will have a cost of “a few thousand euros” for schools.
These types of measures respond to a current situation in which there is more and more evidence on the risks to which minor users are exposed with the use of ‘smartphones’ and social networks in their day to day. A use that has grown 6 percent globally during the past year, going from using 52 minutes a day for social networks in 2023 to 55 minutes a day this year, according to the latest report prepared by Qustodio.
Faced with this, other countries such as the United Kingdom also seek the prohibition of ‘smartphones’ in educational centers, with the idea of implementing a legal requirement that establishes that “all schools must be free areas of mobile phones”, as recently transferred by the Labor Deputy by the Whitehaven and Workington region in the United Kingdom, Josh Macalister, in the framework of a new project presented to regulate the use of ‘smartphones’ by users under 16.