Countries across Europe have moved to restrict smartphones in schools over the past several years, but the legal mechanisms vary widely. France passed a national law. The Netherlands reached a voluntary national agreement with schools, parents, and teachers. England issued non-binding guidance backed by school inspections and is now moving toward statute. Italy restricted phones through a ministerial directive. The differences reflect contrasting theories about what secures compliance: legislation, partnership, or empowered principals.
France: from statute to physical separation
France was one of the first major countries to legislate a phone ban, passing a 2018 law that prohibited mobile phone use in primary schools and lower secondary schools during the entire school day, including breaks. The 2018 law required phones to be switched off and kept in school bags.
In April 2025, Education Minister Élisabeth Borne announced plans to tighten the ban for middle schools starting September 2025, requiring full physical separation of devices in lockers or locked pouches for the entire day under a scheme called the 'digital pause.' The government piloted the approach in approximately 100 middle schools for six months before national rollout, reporting positive feedback on school atmosphere and support from parents and teachers, while some unions raised concerns about cost and logistics.
Schools reported more social interaction, more physical exercise, less bullying, and better concentration under the original ban, though some students evaded the rules by using phones in toilets, according to The Guardian.
The Netherlands: agreement over legislation
The Netherlands took a different path. On January 1, 2024, mobile phones, smartwatches, and tablets were banned from classrooms, corridors, and canteens in secondary schools under a national agreement between the government, schools, parents, and teachers rather than a law. The government argued the agreement approach would secure buy-in and bring rules in faster than legislation, according to BBC News.
A Dutch government-commissioned survey of 317 secondary schools found that approximately three-quarters reported improved student concentration, nearly two-thirds reported a better social climate, and about one-third reported better academic performance. The survey found minimal impact in primary schools, where few students bring phones.
Those findings are self-reported perceptions by school leaders, not independent measures of academic outcomes, according to The Japan Times.
England: guidance moving toward law
England's Department for Education issued guidance on February 19, 2024 backing headteachers in prohibiting mobile phone use throughout the entire school day, including at break times. Implementation was left to individual schools through methods such as banning phones from premises, handing them in on arrival, or locking them away. The government cited one school that reported 'a positive impact overnight' and that 'within one year the whole culture of the school had changed.'
In 2025, the UK government announced plans to go beyond guidance by tabling an amendment to the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would create 'a clear legal requirement for schools' to be phone-free for the entire day, as stated by Education Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith in the House of Lords. Within the UK, approaches vary by devolved nation: Scotland issued guidance in 2024 allowing headteachers to implement bans; Wales has no national ban but heads can restrict devices; Northern Ireland ran a phone-free pilot in nine schools with a report due in June 2025.
What the research says
The research base on whether phone bans improve outcomes is mixed and contested. The first quantitative study of cellphone bans, published in England in 2016 by Murphy and Beland, found that cellphone restrictions improved exam scores, with the largest gains for low-achieving students. The study used data from the National Pupil Database and compared schools before and after phone bans were introduced.
A Swedish study published in 2020 found no academic or behavioral benefits from school cellphone bans, contrasting directly with the English findings and illustrating that results are not consistent across contexts.
A review by researchers at the University of Birmingham concluded that evidence for the most effective approach to addressing phone and social media use in adolescents is currently lacking. The authors recommended shifting from solely restricting access toward nurturing children's digital skills, and called for all new approaches to be accompanied by robust evaluation.
UNESCO's 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report recommended banning smartphones from schools, citing evidence linking smartphone use to reduced educational performance and excessive screen time to negative impacts on children's wellbeing. The UK government cited the UNESCO recommendation in justifying its own 2024 guidance.
Exceptions and variation
- Most national bans allow exceptions for medical needs, such as hearing aids connected to mobile devices, and in some systems for specific educational purposes or pupils with disabilities or illness.
- France's 2018 ban applies to primary schools, where devices are banned entirely, and to lower secondary schools. A 2023 commission report to President Macron recommended children not have smartphones before age 13 and not access conventional social media before age 18.
- Italy prohibited mobile phone use in classrooms starting in 2022 under a ministerial directive, with implementation details varying by school.