Chinese students deprived of mobile phones at school

In China, a new law prohibits children from using mobile phones in all schools in the country.

Tools harmful to attention, sight or even neurons: such is the finding of the Chinese Ministry of Education regarding mobile devices, which it has decided to ban on school grounds. The mobile remains prohibited simultaneously in the classrooms and in the playground.

Teachers also no longer have the right

A deprivation that also affects teachers who have been forbidden to use their own devices, so as not to set a bad example. The text published on the ministry's website specifies that it is a question of combating Internet addiction among young people and improving “their physical and psychological development”.

The ministry's announcement divides Chinese society. While some parents and associations are worried about the smartphone addiction of recent generations, others consider the measure to be extreme in the digital age. The latter recommend preferably to teach them to better manage their relationship to digital.

A cleavage like what happened in France in July 2018, when a similar law was adopted, at the request of Jean-Michel Blanquer. “The use of a mobile phone by a pupil is prohibited in nursery schools, elementary schools and colleges” states this text, which came into force in September 2018, which however did not have the expected results.

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The website of the Ministry of Education explains that "it is up to each establishment to determine the practical methods to ensure compliance with the law": is therefore left to the good care of the boards of directors, the freedom to establish more or rules and consequent penalties less strictly, causing disparities.