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France Issues School Ban For Smartphones

When I was at school, smartphones were not really a thing. The worst thing our teachers had to contend with was us occasionally using the computers for games instead of work. What didn’t help matters much was when yours truly was able to infiltrate the school’s network and find our head of IT had a bunch of freeware games installed. Ahh, happy days!

For teachers these days though, one of the biggest scourges has to be mobile devices. In a report via The Verge though, French lawmakers have decided to make the matter a lot simpler for schools. In brief, they have issued a blanket ban on anyone under the age of 15 to have a smartphone at school. Problem solved?

Smart Devices Also Banned

The new law will also see tablets, laptops and any other personal device which can connect to the internet restricted. The potential of this is to remove the schools from having to technically create their own confused or contradictory rules. This isn’t the first time France has created such a law either. In 2010, smartphone usage was banned from any ‘teaching’ environment. This didn’t, however, outright ban them from schools.

A Nice Idea – But Can It Really Be Enforced?

This is a nice idea and such a law at the very least makes it perfectly clear not only to school kids but also their parents that smartphones and any smart device as a whole are no longer permitted. This does, however, create the question of what exactly the schools can do if students or parents simply decide to ignore this?

A lot of parents like their kids to have phones. If, for no other reason, that it means they can be contacted or indeed make calls in the event of an emergency.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? Can it really be enforced? – Let us know in the comments!