United Kingdom: Council becomes first in country to ban smartphones from all its schools - new rule will affect 60,000 pupils

Council becomes first in country to ban smartphones from all its schools - new rule will affect 60,000 pupils
By ADAM POGRUND, dailymail.co.uk, 15 February 2025 | Updated: 17 February 2025

A London council has become the first in the country to ban smartphones from all of its schools, in a new rule which will affect more than 60,000 pupils.

School pupils in Barnet, north London, will be banned from bringing phones into their classrooms from September.

There are 103 primary schools and 23 secondary schools in Barnet which will prohibit their students from bringing in smartphones, according to the Smartphone Free Childhood (SFC) charity.

All schools in the north London borough will also send letters to parents recommending they do not give their children smartphones until they are at least 14 and that they should restrict social media until 16.

Parents will be encouraged to give their children 'brick' phones for travel safety.

Barnet is the first council to include secondary schools in a phone ban. Meanwhile, Ealing, St Albans, Cambridgeshire, Petersfield and Hampshire have prohibited phone use in primary schools

SFC said the 'groundbreaking policy' will mean over 63,000 state-educated children will benefit from a seven-hour window in the day where they can 'learn, socialise and grow, free from addictive algorithms.'

Nova Eden, the charity's regional leader for north London, said: 'There is a lot of evidence to show there is a direct correlation and causative link between the use of smartphones and social media in young children and the rise in cases of depression, anxiety and self-harm.'

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