France bans children under 15 from using phones in school

All French children under
15 will be banned from using their phones at any point during the
day. This child is playing with an iPhone X in in
Tokyo.

Tomohiro
Ohsumi/Getty Images

• French students returning from the summer break will no
  longer be able to use their phones during the school
  day.
• Earlier this summer France banned all students under 15
  from using all cellphones, tablets, and smartwatches at any
  point during the day.
• That includes mealtimes.
• The government is concerned that students are becoming
  too dependent on and distracted by their phones.

Monday is the first day that French schoolchildren under 15
cannot use their cellphones at any point during the school day,
thanks to a new nationwide law.

The ban,
passed in July following a campaign pledge made by French
President Emmanuel Macron, will affect elementary and junior high
schools across the country as they return from the summer break.

The new law,
which went into effect on August 5, bans all types of
cellphones, as well as tablets and smartwatches.

While a ban on cellphones during class hours was already in place
since 2010, the new law extends to breaks and mealtimes.

Schools are free to choose themselves if they will implement the
ban for students over 15. There are also some exceptions to the
ban, such as for students with disabilities.

Banning
phones in school was one of Emmanuel Macron’s pledges while
campaigning for president.
Ludovic
Marin/Pool Photo via AP

“A law for the 21st century”

Under the new law, students have to turn their phones off during
the day or put them in lockers, the Associated Press reported.
Schools will independently deal with the logistics of how
students will be kept away from their phones, the news agency
said.

The law was introduced amid fears that students were
becoming too dependent on and distracted by their smartphones.

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer in June hailed the
legislation as “a law for the 21st century,” and said it would
improve discipline among France’s 12 million schoolchildren,

Agence France-Presse reported.

“Being open to technologies of the future doesn’t mean we have to
accept all their uses,” he said.