Chile’s legislature approved a law on Tuesday that would ban the use of smartphones in schools. A large majority of Chile’s Chamber of Deputies supported the bill.
It now goes to President Gabriel Boric for final approval, who has expressed support for the policy. After this, this law will come into effect in March 2026.
Education Minister Nicolás Cataldo said Chilean schools are currently plagued by smartphones which are “a curse… one of the main epidemics affecting our children and youth.”
Conservative lawmaker Diego Schalper, one of the bill’s authors, celebrated the adoption of the law and said that mobile phone use in children is linked to online addictions and “affects the educational process in classrooms.”
The South American nation is the latest attempt to regulate youth smartphone use through school bans.
According to UNESCO, about 40% of schools worldwide plan to ban smartphone use to varying degrees by 2024, up from 30% a year earlier.
These countries include Brazil, Finland, South Korea, Netherlands, Italy and France.
How will the law work?
Lawmaker Marcia Raphael said the bill sought to promote “concentration, performance, community life and emotional health” among young people.
Under the bill, students will not be allowed to have phones in the classroom setting in both primary and secondary schools.
Exceptions are only available for students with special educational needs, in an emergency, or if a student has a medical condition that requires constant monitoring via a smartphone device.
Apart from the emergency exception, for all other exceptions of cellphone usage the student will be required to bring a certificate from the concerned authority to justify the claim.
The bill is the product of years of lobbying by parents and teachers in Chile, who argued that smartphone use hinders students’ learning and emotional development.
According to a recent international study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, more than half of Chilean students reported that digital devices disrupted their learning process.
“We are driving a cultural change for children and adolescents, who today more than ever need to see each other’s faces again, socialize during recess, and gain concentration to promote learning,” said Education Minister Cataldo.
Edited by: Shawn Sinico