Smartphones will be banned at schools under new legislation proposed in Denmark, the education minister announced today.
“We have decided to give the government’s support to this idea and that’s why we are starting to prepare a change in the law,” Mattias Tesfaye told the Danish daily newspaper Politiken.
The details of the law have not yet been signed off but Tesfaye said, “mobile phones and personal tablets will not be allowed at school, neither during break times nor during lessons.
“I believe screens are robbing many of our children of their childhood,” culture minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said at a press conference.
The plan follows recommendations from a youth wellbeing commission, which also recommended restricting the use of smartphones to those aged 13 and older.
Rasmus Meyer, president of the commission, said the age restriction was “clearly not something that should be decided by law.
“As soon as a phone enters a child’s bedroom, it takes up all the space,” Meyer said. “It risks destroying their self-esteem. As soon as they have a gadget in their hands, their wellbeing suffers.”
