UNESCO’s Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team reports that more than half of the world’s countries now enforce national bans on mobile phones in schools, reflecting growing concern about classroom attention, cyberbullying and the broader digital influence on children.
GEM’s review found 114 education systems—about 58% of countries worldwide—have a national prohibition on phones in school settings. The shift has been rapid: when the GEM report first tracked these measures in 2023, only 24% of countries had bans; that rose to 40% by early 2025 and reached roughly 58% by March 2026. A senior GEM official told PTI the trend mirrors rising worries about students’ focus and online harms, while urging that the global picture is complex and varies by context.
The report highlights particularly acute risks to girls’ mental and emotional health. Data indicate girls are twice as likely as boys to experience eating disorders exacerbated by social media. Research cited from Facebook found 32% of teenage girls said using Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies. GEM also flagged patterns in TikTok’s content delivery, reporting the platform’s algorithm serves body-image material to teenagers about every 39 seconds and posts linked to eating disorders around every eight minutes.
Policies and enforcement differ widely. Some countries ban phones during the entire school day or inside classrooms; others permit devices for structured educational activities, exempt students with medical needs or disabilities, or require phones to be turned off and stored away. Rather than imposing national bans, several governments require individual schools to adopt restrictive rules; examples named by GEM include Comoros, Colombia, Estonia, Lithuania, Iceland, Peru, Indonesia, Serbia, Poland and the Philippines. In countries with decentralized education systems, restrictions often begin at local or regional level and spread upward.
Several nations added national bans since late 2025, including Bolivia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Georgia, the Maldives and Malta. France—an earlier adopter that forbids phones in primary and lower secondary schools—is considering tougher measures in parliament.
In the United States there is no single federal ban, but 39 states have passed laws banning phones in schools or requiring school districts to set limits on device use; many of the remaining states have introduced related bills.
GEM emphasizes that students’ emotional well‑being is central to learning. The team notes evidence linking increased social media use from around age 10 with worsening socioemotional difficulties as children grow older—an effect seen most strongly among girls and not mirrored among boys.
Beyond phone bans in schools, some countries are exploring or enacting limits on children’s access to social media. Legislative or policy efforts are underway in Australia, France, Portugal and Spain, while debates continue in Denmark, the Czech Republic and Indonesia.
Overall, GEM’s findings suggest a clear global movement toward tighter controls on mobile devices in education settings, driven by concerns about attention, online harms and young people’s mental health—especially for adolescent girls—while also underscoring differences in how countries balance restriction, educational use and individual exemptions.
