France is launching a real-world experiment that could reshape how children experience school. Starting at nearly 200 secondary schools, students under 15 will be required to hand over their phones upon arrival — giving them what officials are calling a “digital pause” during the school day. If the pilot succeeds, a nationwide rollout across all French schools could follow as early as January 2025 C.E.
At a glance
- Phone-free schools: Nearly 200 French secondary schools are participating in the pilot, requiring students to surrender devices at reception rather than simply keeping them pocketed.
- Screen time health risks: A 140-page commission report found strong consensus that overexposure to digital devices harms children’s sleep, physical activity levels, eyesight, and healthy weight.
- Age-based guidelines: The commission recommends no phones before age 11, phones without internet between 11 and 13, and phones with internet but no social media access before 15.
Why this goes further than existing rules
France actually banned phone use on school premises back in 2018 C.E. — covering primary and secondary students alike. But that law let students keep their phones in their bags, creating a gray zone that was difficult to enforce.
This new trial closes that gap. By requiring students to physically hand over their devices at the door, the pilot makes the phone-free environment real rather than theoretical. Acting Education Minister Nicole Belloubet announced the experiment, framing it as a way to protect children’s attention, well-being, and social development during the school day.
The science behind the push
President Emmanuel Macron commissioned an independent expert panel to study how screens affect children. The resulting 140-page report, published in March 2024 C.E., drew on a wide body of research and found what it described as a “very clear consensus” on the harms of heavy digital device use in children — including disrupted sleep, reduced physical activity, increased obesity risk, and vision problems.
The report went further, suggesting that “hyper” use of phones and digital technology was damaging not just to individual children but to broader society. Neurologist and neurophysiologist Servane Mouton, a commission member, put it plainly: “We must put the digital tool in its place. Up to at least six years old a child has no need for a digital device to develop.”
The commission also recommended that children under three should not be exposed to digital devices at all — a guideline aimed as much at parents as at schools.
France isn’t alone — but it’s moving faster
The debate over phones in schools has been running across Europe for years, with different countries landing in different places. Italy introduced one of the earliest bans in 2007 C.E., relaxed it in 2017 C.E., then reinstated it in 2022 C.E. The Netherlands moved from a classroom recommendation to a broader directive this school year. Germany has no national law but most schools have informally restricted devices during lessons.
The U.K. government issued guidance in early 2024 C.E. encouraging English schools to prohibit phones throughout the school day — but left enforcement to individual headteachers. Portugal is testing a middle path with designated phone-free days each month. Spain’s approach varies by region, with no federal ban in place.
What sets France apart is the scale and speed of its response. Moving from a commission report to a national pilot within months — with a clear timeline for potential nationwide implementation — reflects a level of political will that most other European nations haven’t matched.
What success might look like
The pilot schools will gather data on student well-being, focus, and social behavior during the phone-free trial period. Those results will inform whether the French government moves ahead with the January rollout. Researchers and educators across Europe will be watching closely — this is one of the most rigorous real-world tests of phone removal at school yet conducted at scale.
Research from the London School of Economics has previously found that banning phones in schools improved academic outcomes, particularly for lower-achieving and disadvantaged students — suggesting the benefits may not be evenly distributed but could matter most for those who need support the most. A study published in PLOS ONE similarly found links between adolescent smartphone use and reduced sleep quality and life satisfaction.
Still, questions remain. Enforcing a handover policy at scale across thousands of schools will require staffing, storage solutions, and buy-in from students and families alike. Some families and digital rights advocates have also raised concerns about emergency contact access and student autonomy — tensions the pilot will need to address honestly as data comes in.
Read more
For more on this story, see: The Guardian
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Alzheimer’s risk cut in half by drug in landmark prevention trial
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- The Good News for Humankind archive on France
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