Just under 200 high schools are participating in the experiment, which will require young people to hand over their phones upon arrival at school. France is launching a process to ban the use of mobile phones in schools for pupils under 15, seeking to give children a “digital break” which, if successful, could be rolled out across the country from January.
The device ban goes further than a 2018 law that banned elementary and middle school students from using their phones on the premises, but allowed them to keep them.
Announcing the court hearing on the subject, Acting Minister of Education, Nicole Belube, said the aim was to give young people a “digital break”. If the trial proves successful, the ban will be introduced in all schools from January, Belube said.
A commission established by French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed concern that excessive exposure of children to screens has a detrimental effect on their health and development.
The 140-page report published in March concluded that there is “a very clear consensus on the direct and indirect negative effects of digital devices. They affect sleep, lack of physical activity, and can be the cause of overweight and even obesity”.
It states that the “hyper” use of phones and other digital technology is not only bad for children, but also for “society and civilization.”
The report recommends that the use of mobile phones by children be controlled in stages: no mobile phones at least until the age of 11, no access to the Internet between 11 and 13 as well as phones with Internet, as well as no access to social networks before the age of 15.
It also suggested that children under the age of three should not be exposed to digital devices at all, which it said were “not necessary for healthy child development”.
E2 portal (We are life)
Source: www.e2.rs
