Mobile phones to be banned in all Swedish schools - 17/Sept/2025

PressReader The Guardian - 28/09/2025

 Miranda Bryant 

‘Not optional’: mobile phones to be banned in all Swedish schools

 Sweden is to implement a mobile phone ban in schools to try to improve security and study conditions for pupils. From autumn 2026, it will be compulsory for schools and afterschool clubs to collect phones and hold them until the end of the day.

The rule will affect children from the age of seven to 16. It was among measures announced by the government yesterday that also cover the curriculum, the grading system and teacher training.

“What we are presenting today is a historic budget investment in schools and the biggest reform agenda in over 30 years,” said the education minister, Simona Mohamsson. The budget bill, to be submitted next week, allocates 95m kronor (£7.52m) for 2026 and 100m kronor the following year to implement the phone ban.

Most schools in Sweden already confiscate mobile phones at the start of the day but some students have found ways to get around the ban, such as by handing in fake phones or saying they have forgotten theirs. Mohamsson, who is the leader of the Liberals, has previously said of the ban: “This should apply to everyone in all of Sweden’s classrooms. It applies to every young person in Sweden and is not optional.”

This year Denmark said it would ban mobiles in schools and afterschool clubs on the recommendation of a government commission that found children under 13 should not have their own smartphone or tablet.

Norway last year announced a strict minimum age of 15 for social media use after the government accused tech companies of being “pitted against small children’s brains”.

Research in the Netherlands, where most schools ban mobile devices, has found improvements to the learning environment as a result. The vast majority (75%) of secondary schools surveyed said that children found it easier to concentrate and 28% said results had improved when phones were banned. France this month tightened its ban on mobile phones in middle schools, requiring pupils to shut away devices at the start of the day.