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France tests banning phones in 200 schools

Do you agreee whith banning phones in schools?

  • Yes

    Votes: 149 90.3%
  • No

    Votes: 8 4.8%
  • No sure/ No opinion

    Votes: 8 4.8%

  • Total voters
    165

winjer

Gold Member

This is a new announcement by the central government against the screens. "Nearly 200 colleges" in France will experience the total ban of mobile phones from the beginning of the year. An announcement by the resigning minister of national education, Nicole Belloubet, during her press conference back to school, Tuesday, August 27. Several countries around the world have already banned the use of smartphones in schools.

The mobile phones of middle school students, confiscated in January 2025 at school. National Education minister Nicole Belloubet announced Tuesday that she would strengthen the law banning mobile phones in schools and colleges.

Students will have to drop off their smartphone in a locker in January 2025 when entering the school.200 colleges in France will test this device from the start of the school year.

By banning cell phones in colleges, the ministry hopes to "prevent online violence, limit screen exposure and enforce the rules governing the use of digital tools". In particular, he wants an "improvement of school climate" by limiting "the harassment online" and la "violent images broadcast" what smartphones allow as well as an effect on the "student results" eliminating a distraction in the classroom.

In a report based on the 2022 results of the PISA survey (which evaluated the skills of 15-year-olds in mathematics, reading and science in 81 education systems) and questionnaires addressed to young people, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recalled last May "educational opportunities"the digital environment but also its "risks".

58% of French students say they have been distracted"at least a few math classes"by their screens and 53% by the device of another young person, against respectively 65% and 59% in the OECD. This distraction "seems"to have "tangible link"with learning, says OECD: distracted students get "much weaker results".

Some 43% of French students have them "reported feeling nervous or anxious when their phone was not nearby". This report does not resolve the issue of banning school appliances but observes that a "outright banning of smartphones (..) is a measure that has visible effects"in countries where it exists, even if it depends"to a large extent the rigour with which the ban is enforced".
 

Toots

Gold Member
good.
Goddam en marche drones starting to do their work 44 days after resigning. Better late than never.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Morgan Freeman Good Luck GIF


I can’t fathom school life these days. I finished school before smartphones, when the best pic you could take with your Nokia was a stamp-sized pixelated mess and you didn’t have internet access on your phone. Just how schools can regulate phones effectively is beyond me. Sounds like a Sisyphus task.
 

winjer

Gold Member
Morgan Freeman Good Luck GIF


I can’t fathom school life these days. I finished school before smartphones, when the best pic you could take with your Nokia was a stamp-sized pixelated mess and you didn’t have internet access on your phone. Just how schools can regulate phones effectively is beyond me. Sounds like a Sisyphus task.

It's not an easy task, but with the parents help it can be done.
And it seems, most parents support this measure.
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
Morgan Freeman Good Luck GIF


I can’t fathom school life these days. I finished school before smartphones, when the best pic you could take with your Nokia was a stamp-sized pixelated mess and you didn’t have internet access on your phone. Just how schools can regulate phones effectively is beyond me. Sounds like a Sisyphus task.
My sons school (In the UK), just before we moved, trialled a phone amnesty. They'd hand their phones in at the start of the day and get them back after school. It worked pretty well given a few teething problems, but the school was terrible in most things anyway.

Obviously though there was the so called 'mothers' pissing and moaning on the local Facebook page that it wasn't right, it was unfair and goes against their kids 'rights'

Thing is, I know these kids of theirs as my lad knows them and tells me what they get up to, especially with their phones and towards my son. They were some of the most degenerate bunch of arseholes you could imagine, the parents were no doubt worse, go figure..

All in all though. It worked.

It can work. And needs to.
 

Dr.Morris79

Member
and no social media accounts until 18. That’d be a start.
That's so much easier to say than do though. My lad, thankfully, and down to us bringing him up with a modicum of a brain, hates social media and has never wanted to join it, he can see the brain rot it can be. Never had a problem in that regard, he's doing brilliant at school, wants to be a commercial pilot.

My cousins daughter, the total opposite. She cannot live without it and her friends on it,

Not only is it harder to stop the torrent of sway on girls to be part of the 'in' crowd, they've cemented it as part of their culture, so to speak

It hasn't done her any favours. She isn't doing well at school, she Says how girls bully each other, etc etc. She's becoming a lost soul with no direction. And no dad either which I feel goes a long way too. No dad, mum's working a lot, where do you turn?

The phone. That can be true of both of male and females. They're both 14.

Well that was rambly :messenger_unamused:

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a societal issue that we're making it harder to get out of, and we love doing it so much that our kids are screwed.
 
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Trilobit

Member
If smartphone usage is detrimental to their education then yes, it makes sense to forbid it. It's not stranger than some companies that forbid usage during worktime or when you're on the floor with customers. Humankind has also been able to live without phones for many millenniums so I think being without it for some hour per day isn't going to hurt anyone. Well, except maybe those who are addicted to them.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
In a news report about the ban on mobile phones on Dutch schools I read that France was one of the first countries to ban mobile phones back in 2018.

So what's new? Has the age limit gone up?

 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
People as a whole are too stupid for smart phones let alone teenagers and lower.

Just a simple case in point. My wife loves firework shows so I've seen a lot over the years and now days I can barely make it through one for all the people filming WITH THEIR PHONE LIGHT ON. How dumb do you to be not to realize or think how annoying that is to others or that it helps in anyway?
 

Nester99

Member
Our province just passed “no phones bell to bell” for this semester. This is great as my kids are just starting school!
 

Lunarorbit

Member
Totally ban then. Huge distraction. Teachers constantly fighting students over this issue is ridiculous.

The administration in so many schools doesnt support teachers and in many cases abandons them to deal with this issue on an individual classroom basis. Totally lack of leadership.

If a disaster happens, guess what you're not going to be able to reach your kid in most cases anyway. Cell towers get blasted and overwhelmed and you won't reach your kid.

Take them away at the beginning of each school day.
 

Hrk69

Member
Not sure how other countries do it but I'm surprised it isn't banned already

But that's how it goes, we recognize a big issue and it takes ages before it gets handled
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Makes sense. Not sure why it isnt banned already.

Nobody is/was allowed to listen to a walkman during class, so why would cell phones be allowed now?
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
NYC did this for years and it was fine.

The worst mayor in the city's history, Bill DeBlasio, reversed it, claiming that they had to so parents could contact their kids... As if the parent couldn't call the school and the school could go find the kid. The way it was done for the decades before cell phones existed.
 
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Aesius

Member
That's so much easier to say than do though. My lad, thankfully, and down to us bringing him up with a modicum of a brain, hates social media and has never wanted to join it, he can see the brain rot it can be. Never had a problem in that regard, he's doing brilliant at school, wants to be a commercial pilot.

My cousins daughter, the total opposite. She cannot live without it and her friends on it,

Not only is it harder to stop the torrent of sway on girls to be part of the 'in' crowd, they've cemented it as part of their culture, so to speak

It hasn't done her any favours. She isn't doing well at school, she Says how girls bully each other, etc etc. She's becoming a lost soul with no direction. And no dad either which I feel goes a long way too. No dad, mum's working a lot, where do you turn?

The phone. That can be true of both of male and females. They're both 14.

Well that was rambly :messenger_unamused:

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a societal issue that we're making it harder to get out of, and we love doing it so much that our kids are screwed.
Yeah, my niece is about to turn 9 and is already hooked on social media/tablets/Roblox. Her mom doesn't let her have a smartphone yet but many of her friends already have them.

That's the killer. It's the peer pressure and socialization aspect of internet and social media usage for young kids. If you don't have an online presence, you miss out on stuff your friends are doing. And it starts super young now.

Parents don't care and give their kids tablets at age 3-4 to occupy them. So they're terminally online by age 6 and then their entire social lives revolve around their tablets because their friends are using them, too.

I have two boys ages 4 and 2 and they are blissfully unaware about tablets. But I don't know how much longer I can keep that up. My oldest's best friend at daycare has a tablet and uses it constantly according to his parents. Which is shocking because they seem like good attentive parents. So it's only a matter of time until my oldest figures that out and wants one of his own.

Parents need to band together and not allow internet-connected devices until the teen years at the earliest and certainly no social media accounts or TikTok. But too many parents view them as quick and easy escapes from actual parenting or they just immediately give in to their kids' demands.

I feel like any kids who can make it through adolescence in the modern era without developing brainrot will be at a huge advantage in life.
 

Rat Rage

Member
This is GOOD!

I wonder why they have to test it, though... Generations of other human beings have experienced a time without cellphones in schools. It's not like they are taking away air from them.

On the other hand, maybe it's like an addiction, so they have to test if people are going crazy without them.
 

FeralEcho

Member
No smartphones in school, and no social media accounts until 18. That’d be a start.
I'd also make it law to require ID for a social media account. That'd kill off 90% of the horseshit.
That'd be the best scenario and would increase the IQ of future generations tenfold but here's the thing.

No government or any of today's mega corporations of the world would want that. The dumber the population is,the easier they are to control and it all starts in school. Afterall,all they want from you as a consumer when you grow up is to...well..consume,and pay taxes.

They don't want you to actually think for yourself as that would obstruct their plans of control.

For this to work it would have to start with the parents but most of them today are part of the generation that grew up on smartphones and social media as well so many of them probably already feel like there's nothing wrong with phones in school.

I'd love to be wrong but I just don't see this ever happening unless some serious dictatorship takes place in schools which would create a different problem yet again.
 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
While it isn’t the worst idea I don’t think the government should tell you what you can and can’t carry into certain places. I don’t even like gun free zones.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
While it isn’t the worst idea I don’t think the government should tell you what you can and can’t carry into certain places. I don’t even like gun free zones.
It's well established that schools are a place where the government has more control and jurisdiction over what goes in and out, due to the unique fact that they are in control of a bunch of minors for a huge part of the day.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
NYC did this for years and it was fine.

The worst mayor in the city's history, Bill DeBlasio, reversed it, claiming that they had to so parents could contact their kids... As if the parent couldn't call the school and the school could go find the kid. The way it was done for the decades before cell phones existed.
I was going to say something similar in my post above but didnt bother.

That someone would push the emergency call issue as the reason why kids have to have a phone beside them.

when you got kids and parents hooked on cellphones, what you get are parents at work and kids at school wasting time talking to each other. The number of emergency calls is going be 1%. The other 99% of the time is them goofing around about whats for dinner and trivial shit.

See it all the time. Kid gets home from school first and late in the work day mom or dad is on the phone talking about snacks, homework or dinner plans. That's some hardcore emergency.
 

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
I was going to say something similar in my post above but didnt bother.

That someone would push the emergency call issue as the reason why kids have to have a phone beside them.

when you got kids and parents hooked on cellphones, what you get are parents at work and kids at school wasting time talking to each other. The number of emergency calls is going be 1%. The other 99% of the time is them goofing around about whats for dinner and trivial shit.

See it all the time. Kid gets home from school first and late in the work day mom or dad is on the phone talking about snacks, homework or dinner plans. That's some hardcore emergency.
Id say less than 1%. I think maybe 1 in 10k interactions on my cell are urgent.
 
They should ban them in school. They are too distracting. If I was in class just sitting there playing the Gameboy it would have been taken off me. It's no different for a phone. People are literally playing games in class on their phone. I felt like the world was more sane when I was in school. I think they should tax social media. You need to pay a social media tax. $2000 a year to use Ticktock. Then we will see how many parents will allow their kids to use it. Should only be adults.
 

Trogdor1123

Member
Started it where I live too. You can have them at school but need to stay in lockers or be handed over to the teachers at the start of class.

It’s a fantastic idea imo. One school where I live went even further. They have some kind of blocker that stops cellphone signals (but phone calls can get through I believe) getting in and out except during specific times.
 

Laptop1991

Member
Yes in lessons, but not in school itself, kids might need to contact their parents etc, they always go too far with these measures, should be more of a middle ground, yeah some will sneak them in to lessons, and they should get in trouble for that, but an outright ban is not workable or sensible for me. so i'll select not sure. update i can't, i have an opinion lol.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
Yes in lessons, but not in school itself, kids might need to contact their parents etc, they always go too far with these measures, should be more of a middle ground, yeah some will sneak them in to lessons, and they should get in trouble for that, but an outright ban is not workable or sensible for me. so i'll select not sure. update i can't, i have an opinion lol.
If a kid needs to contact their parents they can go to the office and the school can hand them a phone to call them. That's how it was done before cell phones and nobody thought it was some grave injustice or massive problem.
 
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Laptop1991

Member
If a kid needs to contact their parents they can go to the office and the school can hand them a phone to call them. That's how it was done before cell phones and nobody thought it was some grave injustice or massive problem.
That relies on a 3rd party to do so, and don't pretend all teachers or heads are perfect ,they are not, i don't agree, when my kids were at school i would want them to contact me directly if there is an issue, no reason why they can't have phones at lunchtime.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
That relies on a 3rd party to do so, and don't pretend all teachers or heads are perfect ,they are not, i don't agree, when my kids were at school i would want them to contact me directly if there is an issue, no reason why they can't have phones at lunchtime.

They don't need to be perfect, they just need to do what they have always done, which is let kids call their parents if they have to. Like I said, this is the way the world worked for decades and it was fine. How many times realistically does a kid need to contact their parent during school or vice versa, in a non-emergency situation where the school would be involved by default.

You have to weight this against the negatives of letting kids have cell phones in school which are significant.
 
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Laptop1991

Member
They don't need to be perfect, they just need to do what they have always done, which is let kids call their parents if they have to. Like I said, this is the way the world worked for decades and it was fine. How many times realistically does a kid need to contact their parent during school or vice versa, in a non-emergency situation where the school would be involved by default.

You have to weight this against the negatives of letting kids have cell phones in school which are significant.
I was at school in the 70's and 80's, where teachers would abuse kids with corporal punishment, and some teachers did it for fun, i'm not a young un so i know full well what the decades were like and they wern't the same, they rightly banned hitting children in the end, yeah there is bad kids and yeah there is bad teachers, i don't agree with you mate, i don't think a school should have all the power, again i see no reason kids can't have their phones at lunchtime, that's my opinion.
 

Fbh

Member
This sound like something that should be a standard practice everywhere.

I dont understand how phones were allowed in school in the first place. I remember i couldnt walk into my school with a walkman or cd player.

Yeah I remember cellphones were banned during class in my school.
You could take your phone to school but if you used it during class it would get confiscated. If I remember correctly the first couple of times they'd just return it to you at the end of the day, but if you were caught multiple times your parents had to come retrieve it.

Somehow in the 15 years since then rules about cellphones in many school in my area have gotten more lax despite the actual devices becoming 100X more distracting and addicting with the arrival of Smartphones.
 
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K' Dash

Member
If a kid needs to contact their parents they can go to the office and the school can hand them a phone to call them. That's how it was done before cell phones and nobody thought it was some grave injustice or massive problem.

they can give them to the teacher and just take them at the end of the class, but I like no phones at all better.
 
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diffusionx

Gold Member
I was at school in the 70's and 80's, where teachers would abuse kids with corporal punishment, and some teachers did it for fun, i'm not a young un so i know full well what the decades were like and they wern't the same, they rightly banned hitting children in the end, yeah there is bad kids and yeah there is bad teachers, i don't agree with you mate, i don't think a school should have all the power, again i see no reason kids can't have their phones at lunchtime, that's my opinion.
I get it, but I'm just saying that you have to weight it all, is the 1 or 2 times a year max that a kid absolutely needs to contact his or her parent during school worth the negatives of having cell phones available to kids during school hours? Especially when there is a workable solution without them having it? Like if I was a kid, and I got sick, I went to the nurse and the nurse called my parents. Stuff like that. I don't think a secretary or nurse could get away with telling the kid to screw off like maybe they could in 1978.

I honestly think keeping the phones away from kids from 8-2 or whatever would benefit them a great deal. If they go through their whole childhood and teen years not having this thing strapped to their hand for huge chunks of their day, they would have some ability to live without it, which is something that many many people do not have these days.
 
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winjer

Gold Member
I get it, but I'm just saying that you have to weight it all, is the 1 or 2 times a year max that a kid absolutely needs to contact his or her parent during school worth the negatives of having cell phones available to kids during school hours? Especially when there is a workable solution without them having it? Like if I was a kid, and I got sick, I went to the nurse and the nurse called my parents. Stuff like that. I don't think a secretary or nurse could get away with telling the kid to screw off like maybe they could in 1978.

I honestly think keeping the phones away from kids from 8-2 or whatever would benefit them a great deal. If they go through their whole childhood and teen years not having this thing strapped to their hand for huge chunks of their day, they would have some ability to live without it, which is something that many many people do not have these days.

In the rare case that a student needs to contact his parents, all he or she needs to do, is ask the teacher to return the phone.
It's not complicated, unless people decide to make it so.

Banning phones in school might have some occasional inconveniences, but those are vastly offset by the advantages of having students focused on learning while at school, and avoiding all the issues with social media, for the period.
 

Laptop1991

Member
I get it, but I'm just saying that you have to weight it all, is the 1 or 2 times a year max that a kid absolutely needs to contact his or her parent during school worth the negatives of having cell phones available to kids during school hours? Especially when there is a workable solution without them having it?

I honestly think keeping the phones away from kids from 8-2 or whatever would benefit them a great deal. If they go through their whole childhood and teen years not having this thing strapped to their hand for huge chunks of their day, they would have some ability to live without it, which is something that many many people do not have these days.
Yeah, people are addicted to technology no doubt, and i'm on the internet most days, as i assume you are but does all out banning them work, or are the kids just going to ignore it and it will cause more problems than just limiting their use, what if the school has to deal with a lot of kids breaking the rules, and mass expulsion's follow with kids not a school, while still using their phones anyway, mass banning of a lot of things never works, it's like what is going on now with ads on Youtube, censoring of topics and certain sites etc, forced agenda, humans of all ages fight back, as they should, and the kids will, especially teenagers, i agree with teachers taking them before a lesson and returning them after as i thought it still was the policy. but FBH says otherwise.
 
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