Brussels – Italy, which has already banned cell phones from kindergarten through middle school, has asked Brussels to extend the ban to under-14 students throughout the EU. The Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, said he has the support of Austria, France, Hungary, Slovakia, and Sweden, which “have expressly endorsed the initiative,” and Lithuania, Cyprus, Greece, and Belgium, which have “announced support.” The Lega minister wants to go further, calling for consideration to be given to extending the use of cell phones to high schools as well.
Valditara, in a press point before the meeting with his European counterparts, also added that the rotating presidency of the EU Council, in the hands of Poland, supports the initiative. He said he was convinced that “other countries” would do so. The European Commission itself is already taking action: recently, responding to a parliamentary question, EU Commissioner for Education, Glenn Micallef had said that Brussels “is collecting evidence and practice from across the EU on the impact of mobile phone bans in schools” and that all information will be available “by the end of 2025.”
What the European Commission can do is a simple, non-binding recommendation on an issue on which many countries have already taken action. Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France and others have imposed similar bans. Italy, on the one hand, insists that cell phones be “eliminated from schools in the European Union certainly up to the age of 14,” and on the other, tries to make inroads to open a discussion “on the usefulness” of extending bans to high schools as well. “If up to the age of 14 the risks are obvious and certainly outweigh the benefits, which are objectively quite insubstantial, we have to understand whether above the age of 14 in high schools a ban can have any concrete utility,” Valditara said. Adding, “I believe that it can have it.”
According to the minister, the data “are dramatic and have a dual impact”: on the psycho-emotional development of young people and on education. Difficulties in concentration, memorisation, “even in the development of imagination.” And then, on the use of cell phones for educational purposes, “cell phones induce distraction and therefore obviously do not guarantee the conditions for excellent performance,” Valditara continued. He is proven right by the estimates collected by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to which 65 per cent of students are distracted by using digital devices to learn math. Additionally, 59 per cent of all students between the ages of 6 and 15 are distracted by classmates intent on using handheld devices instead of following the lessons.
Valditara’s call for “the proper use of digital tools” is a broader crusade, not just about the school environment. The minister suggested “a possible element of discussion for future developments,” namely, the proposal for a “stringent regulation in the use of social media for minors under 15 years.
