I remember reading a study not too long ago that said being excluded for not having a phone isn't really happening in schools that have already banned phones.

I'll link it here if I can find it.

Would this not be a ban on phones for kids and less on in class? I don't think they would miss out on much during class time, but not having a phone at all would cause a social barrier in today's world.

The potential effect of technology and distractions on undergraduate students’ concentration

Results: The results revealed that ringing cell phones in the class were the most commonly reported electronic external distractor for 68% of students, and 21% of them reported being extremely distracted by this noise. Having an instructor who is difficult to understand was the most commonly reported external behavioral distractor for 75% of students, and 48% of them rated this as extremely distracting. Students talking in class were the most self-produced distractor for 72% of students; negatively impacting their concentration and ability to learn, and 42% of them rated it as an extreme distractor. Wearing clothing with unusual words, drinking and eating in the classroom were minimally distracting colleagues. Overall, distractions (internal and external) were more significant for fifth-year students than the other years at a p-value < 0.001.

Conclusion: Students believed that laptop and cell phone use in the classroom can effect their concentration and ability to learn. The students also felt that inappropriate behavior is a major distraction for students as well, and thus necessitates monitoring and improvement.

Maybe German kids are just built different.

Ah yes, if [unnamed vague concept] of German “educational” “experts” say so then it MUST both be an 1) honest report of findings, and 2) objectively correct facts. Opinion changed. Boom done.

Just kidding.

Thats stupid, and even if they are real and think so, I think they are stupid then lol.

Banning phones means banning phones. It’s hard for kids to sneak a brick of bright light when they’re in a classroom of their peers facing the teacher, so noone will be missing out on anything so long as the teachers properly enforce the new rule.

I think it likely that there will be more positive outcomes by forcing children to socialize face-to-face which is natural and especially important at that age.

Your comment essentially boils down to: Some people think we should just let kids do whatever they want and don’t worry about discipline, rules, or things needing a “right place and the right time.” You reek of “millennial/ipad-kid parent” lol.

What?? What absurd scenario are you referring to? What situation could they create that would require the kids to have phones to “handle it themselves” instead of finding the nearest adult teacher/admin and getting help?

If there’s an earthquake — I hope people/children are more concerned about getting to safety rather than calling mommy and telling her that they are about to die because rather than get to safety they got distracted by their phone calling her.

After the earthquake, if it’s catastrophic, the parents know where the kids are. Hint: AT THE FUCKIN’ SCHOOL. And they will likely need to go pick them up anyways.

What kind of stupid thought process led you to believe you’re making some sort of intelligent point here? Get real, touch grass.

Adolescents attending schools with restrictive, compared to permissive policies had lower phone (adjusted mean difference −0.67 h, 95% CI −0.92 to −0.43, p = 0.00024) and social media time (adjusted mean difference −0.54 h, 95% CI −0.74 to −0.36, p = 0.00018) during school time, but there was no evidence for differences when comparing usage time on weekdays or weekends.

The Lancet is one of the most respected journals of them all - and this is the largest and most scientifically valid study done on mobile phone use in schools.

Try again?

People under 18 shouldn't be on social media, at all. It's incredibly bad for them, as proven by many many studies. You don't need to lose your liberties for this, I guarantee you that google/apple know most people's age from their super vast data collection based on how much people overshare online. All it takes is to force these giant companies to actually enforce the use of their own technologies, and for governments to spread awareness on how and why to use them, passing a law making it mandatory and part of parental duties is just an icing on the cake that can be used by schools to demand that parents parent their kids.

As a teacher, I do mind taking a student's phone away, as I don't think the phone itself is the problem, but what they're doing with it. And the best approach is not to simply shun the device, but to learn and foster how to use such a powerful tool as a potentiator of education. Banning devices is stupid because it's the easy way out, the lazy choice. It has been done since I was a kid and all some of us had were brick phones that could call our parents and maybe play simple games. And It has never worked, I know because I often would play games under the desk and my classmates would also often use their phones for games or sms. And today, even if you force kids to hand their phones in at the entrance, or lock them away, they can easily have a backup old phone to hand in instead of their actual phones. And this all comes back to parents. Where are kids getting phones? Why are they being allowed to stay their whole day in them? Because parents don't want to parent, and governments don't want to do what's actually right but hard, so they all decided that it's easier to shift the responsibility for controlling device use onto teachers and schools and pretend the problem is solved. It's not.