South Korea prohibits phones in school classrooms across the country

South Korea has adopted a bill banning the use of mobile phones and smart devices during school classes – has become the largest country to limit the use of phone among children and teenagers.

The law, which enters into force from the next school year in March 2026, is the result of the efforts of two -party to restrict addiction to smartphones, as more studies indicate its harmful effects.

Legislators, parents and teachers claim that the use of smartphones affects students’ academic results and takes time they could spend in learning.

The ban has its skeptics, including students who ask how it will work, its wider consequences and whether it deals with the root cause of addiction.

The bill adopted convincingly on Wednesday afternoon, with 115 votes for 163 members present.

Most South Korean schools have already implemented some form of ban on smartphones. And they are not the first to do it.

Some countries such as Finland and France have banned phones on a smaller scale, applying the restriction only to schools for younger children. Others such as Italy, the Netherlands and China have limited use of telephone in all schools.

But South Korea is among the few to secure such a ban on the law.

The children these days “just can’t leave their smartphones,” says Choi Yun-Yang, a mother of a 14-year-old in Seoul.

Not just children. Nearly a quarter of 51 million people in the country depend on their phones too much, according to a government survey in 2024. But this figure is more than couples – up to 43% – for those between the ages of 10 and 19, and it has grown over the years.

More than a third of teenagers also say that they are struggling to control the time they spend scrolling through social media videos. And parents fear that this interferes with everything else they could do over time.

“When they go to school, they have to study, but also build friendships and participate in different activities. Still, they cannot focus on these things,” says G -Ja Choi. “Even when they talk to friends, they quickly return to their phones, and of course it interferes with learning.”

Some parents, such as Kim Sun, whose two daughters are at primary school, are also worried about harassment on social media, where “children are throwing around unthinkable insults around.”

Cho Jung-Hun, a member of the Opposition Party, who introduced the bill, says he was encouraged to act as other countries make such moves. He says there is “significant scientific and medical evidence” that addiction to smartphones has “an extremely harmful effect on students’ brain development and emotional growth.”

Although it prohibits the use of the phone only during the hours, the law gives teachers the power from preventing students from using their phones in school premises. He also asks schools to train students for the proper use of smart devices.

There are some exceptions. The bill allows students with disabilities or special educational needs to use auxiliary devices and permit the use of educational purposes or during emergencies.

However, teachers seem separated by the ban. Of the two major teaching groups in the country, only the Conservative Korean Federation of the Association of Teachers has supported the bill, stating that it provides a “very firm legal basis” to limit phones in classrooms.

A spokesman for the group said, according to their internal study, nearly 70% of teachers reported interruptions in the classroom due to the use of smartphones, with some students “unable to control their emotions at the moment (when teachers limit the use of the phone), swear or even attack teachers.”

The other group, Korean teachers and the Union of Educational Workers, said there was no official position of the law – she said some members were concerned that the law was breaking the right of students to have access to their smartphones.

“In the current reality, students have nowhere to meet friends outside of CRAM’s schools except through Kakaotalk (Communication Annex) or Instagram, and they are constantly pushed into competition at school,” says Cho Young, a high school teacher that is challenging.

Known as Suneung, it is an eight -hour marathon of backward tests that many Koreans believe it seals their fate. The result plays a major role in determining whether they go to the university and whether they do it, who will be, and this in turn solves its prospects and income for work.

Korean children are beginning to prepare for the exam from their first day of school. A 13-year-old student who did not want to be baptized, told the BBC that there was simply no time to be addicted to his phone, as private teaching sessions and homework after school usually support him at midnight every day.

“Instead of just taking phones, I think the first step should be students’ scientists what they can do without them,” says SEO Min-Joon, an 18-year-old high school student who talks against the ban on the smartphone.

The ban on phones during class classes does not achieve much, he says, as “students would still be on their phones while traveling or lying in bed at night.”

“There is no real education for healthy use, only confiscation.”