Three of Berlin’s Family and Health Commissioners have called on the city’s Senate to ban mobile phones in local schools on public health grounds.

Public health officials call for smartphone ban in Berlin schools

Berlin Family and Health Commissioners Gordon Lemm (SPD, Marzahn-Hellersdorf), Carolina Böhm (SPD, Steglitz-Zehlendorf) and Oliver Schwork (SPD, Tempelhof-Schöneberg) have called on the Berlin Senate to ban smartphones in local schools.

Addressing senators Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) and Ina Czyborra (SPD), the three local representatives said that mobile phones must be banned in schools because the "psychological, physical and social disadvantages of unlimited smartphones during school hours far outweigh the advantages”.

“Almost 40 percent of pupils are victims of bullying and in particular, cyberbullying, which predominantly happens on school grounds,” Lemm, Böhm and Schwork wrote. “The psychological consequences of cyberbullying [...] can lead to serious health problems. A quarter of cyberbullying victims have experienced suicidal thoughts”. 

According to figures from the European Parliament, 210 million people in the world suffer from smartphone addiction. In Europe, 71 percent of young people sleep next to their smartphones and 10 percent check their phone more than 10 times per night. Teens who spend more than five hours per day on their phones are also twice as likely to develop depression.

“Many pupils and parents wish for clear rules to ensure the safety of our children and young adults,” their letter continued, proposing that the new rules be based on an existing school smartphone ban in Brandenburg.

Rules in the neighbouring federal state dictate that Grundschule (elementary school) “pupils’ private, digital devices should be stored in their bags or lockers during lessons”. In Berlin, Lemm, Böhm and Schwork would like to expand the ban to the entire school day and institute it in upper and vocational schools.

School smartphone bans becoming more popular across Europe

In July 2023, Dutch Minister for Education, Culture and Science, Robbert Dijkgraaf, announced that from January 2024 mobile phones and smart devices would no longer be allowed in classrooms in the Netherlands to prevent pupils from becoming distracted.

Almost a year after the ban had been imposed, hundreds of Dutch students told a poll that they were socialising more and their social interactions were of a higher quality. There had also been a decrease in cyberbullying.

Similar trials are underway across the continent. 200 French schools and 370 French-speaking primary schools in Belgian Wallonia and Brussels are currently piloting schools sans smartphones. Schools in Italy and Greece are testing more laid-back measures, allowing pupils to have their phones on their person but banning phone use in the classroom.

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