Over the past three years, an unprecedented wave has swept through European education: most EU countries now restrict mobile phones in schools in some way — by law, by decree, or at least by strong recommendation. This site tracks who exactly regulates, how the rules differ by school level, what applies during lessons and breaks, what the exemptions are (contacting parents, lunches, school information systems, health), how much states invested, who was consulted — and above all what the evidence says about whether it works.
As recently as 2022, phones in schools were mostly a matter for the schools themselves. The turning point came in July 2023, when UNESCO's Global Education Monitoring report recommended keeping smartphones out of classrooms wherever they demonstrably do not support learning — warning that the mere presence of a phone on the desk is distracting. According to UNESCO's follow-up monitoring, 60 education systems worldwide banned phones in schools by the end of 2023, a year later it was 79 — 40 % of all systems.
Europe joined quickly and decisively. Hungary ordered mandatory morning phone hand-in in August 2024, Greece introduced its "phone in the bag" rule with a fixed penalty scale, Slovakia wrote a ban directly into its Education Act. In 2025 came Austria, Finland, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Portugal, Slovenia and Latvia — and in 2026 Sweden and Poland with the strictest laws yet, requiring pupils' phones to be physically collected for the whole day.
The same pattern repeats across the continent: the younger the pupils, the tougher the rules. Primary schools tend to have all-day, near-absolute bans; lower secondary a ban with a teaching exemption; while upper secondary schools decide for themselves in most countries. And almost nowhere is it a ban on carrying a phone — what is banned is its use.
Countries choose instruments of varying strength — from an act of parliament to a mere recommendation whose enforcement rests on school rules. The strength of the instrument does not tell the whole story about strictness: Norway's "mere" recommendation led 96 % of primary schools to restrict phones, while Romania's statutory ban was long ignored in practice, according to the unions.
The short answer: almost nowhere. European rules ban the use of phones (not carrying them) and differ mainly in how much of a child's time at school they cover. The milder model bans phones only during lessons — use is allowed during breaks (today e.g. Finland, Romania or Bulgaria, where stricter regimes are added by school rules). The stricter and increasingly common model applies for the whole school day: from arrival to the end of teaching, including breaks, free periods and lunch (France, Poland, Hungary, Greece, Sweden and others). The strictest rules go further and extend the ban to school activities outside the building — outdoor teaching, excursions and trips (explicitly France, Austria, and the Polish law for school-organised activities). And everywhere there are enumerated exemptions: virtually every country allows a health exemption — typically a phone paired with a glucose sensor for children with diabetes, hearing aids or assistive technologies; several laws (Sweden, Poland, Austria, France) state it explicitly.
Contacting parents during the day is handled "through the school" in most countries — the office or the class teacher; Malta even requires the school to make a school phone available. The Polish law includes an exemption for immediate threats to life and health including urgent contact with a parent, and the Swedish one provides for individual permissions for children who need quick contact with parents for psychological reasons. Lunch ordering and school information systems (electronic grade books), curiously, are almost never addressed explicitly by the laws — they fall under school rules and in practice are handled outside lessons, at home, or via school computers. Dutch monitoring shows this is a real issue: 64 % of pupils there report worse access to digital timetables and grades; schools in Swiss Aargau ran into lunch payments via mobile apps.
And almost everywhere, teaching is an exemption from the ban — a teacher may allow the phone in class as a learning tool. The only country that banned smartphones even for teaching purposes (in the first cycle) is Italy; Malta goes furthest, banning even the mere possession of a phone at school.
Each card contains the legal instrument with adoption and effective dates, rules by school level, the regime during lessons and breaks, exemptions, phone storage, state investment, pupil and parent involvement, experience — and referenced sources (preferably ministries, official gazettes and parliaments).
| Country | Who regulates | Strictness | Primary | Lower sec. | Upper sec. | Breaks | Effective |
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Politicians often act on school phones without the backing of scientific evidence and analysis — bans are adopted before research can evaluate them. The strongest causal evidence — the Norwegian study by Sara Abrahamsson and Spanish regional data — shows less bullying and better outcomes for girls and disadvantaged pupils. Official evaluations from the Netherlands, Portugal and France report calmer classrooms and a better climate. Yet the largest US study (NBER, 40,000 schools) and the British SMART Schools study find near-zero effects on achievement and none on overall mental wellbeing — the school phone is only part of a child's day. Where reviews agree: the most reliable improvements are in social climate and bullying, the least certain are grades; and a ban alone is not enough without teaching digital habits.