Finland bans the use of mobile phones in schools

Finland has passed legislation to restrict the use of phones and other mobile devices during the school day, amid fears about their impact on students' well-being and learning.

According to the changes, which were approved by the Finnish parliament on Tuesday and will come into effect on August 1, mobile devices will be severely restricted during school hours, foreign media write, reports Telegraph.

Students will only be allowed to use them with the teacher's permission for health or instructional purposes.

Finland is the latest European country to impose legal restrictions on the use of phones and other mobile devices in schools, amid growing evidence of their impact on children and young people.

Earlier this year, Denmark said it would ban mobile phones from all schools.

The chairman of the country's welfare commission, Rasmus Meyer, told The Guardian that the measure was necessary to stop schools from being "colonised by digital platforms" and urged the rest of Europe to follow suit.

The Danish commission found that 94% of young people in the country had a social media profile before they turned 13 – despite this being the minimum age on many social media platforms – and that children aged nine to 14 spent an average of three hours a day on TikTok and YouTube.

Other countries that have introduced restrictions on mobile phones include France, which banned primary and secondary school students from using their phones on school premises in 2018 and has been trialling a "digital break" for children up to the age of 15, and Norway, which recently announced a strict minimum age limit of 15 on social media.

In the UK, a recent study showed that 99.8% of primary schools and 90% of secondary schools have some form of ban on phones, although there is no national statutory ban. /Telegraph/