Guidelines presented

London pushes ahead with smartphone ban in schools

The British government is pressing ahead with its plans to ban the use of smartphones in schools. On Monday, the Department for Education in London published guidelines for schools on how to prevent the use of smartphones. However, this is not yet a blanket ban on cell phones and schools have a largely free hand in implementing it.

The recommended measures range from a blanket ban on bringing cell phones to school to regulations that require students to hand in their cell phones, lock them up or keep them in their pockets without making a sound. The document also states that a regulation that provides for the restricted use of devices is conceivable for upper school pupils. Teachers should also only use their cell phones extremely sparingly in front of pupils.

Trade unions criticized the government's proposal. "As most schools already have policies in place to tackle the problems of smartphone use, this guidance will do little and only distract from the many problems in education," said Daniel Kebede from the National Education Union teachers' union, according to the Guardian.

According to the British media regulator Ofcom, 97 percent of twelve-year-olds in the country already have a smartphone. In addition to negative consequences for school lessons, the dangers of harmful content on the internet and cyberbullying have also been prominently discussed in the British media recently. The murder of 16-year-old trans teenager Brianna Ghey by two other young people who had consumed material glorifying violence on the internet also contributed to this.