In Italy, since the start of the school year, mobile phones have been banned from school until the end of secondary school.
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In Italy, the school year starts about ten days later than in France. In some regions, school only resumed on Monday, September 16. This year is marked by an all-out offensive against the use of mobile phones by children and adolescents, in the name of their mental health – concentration, harassment, sleep. A measure that seems to be unanimous among adults.
At the Virgil College in the centre of Rome, Professor Braga teaches literature. She defends the ban on mobile phones for children and young teenagers: “To have thoughtlessly put these devices in the hands of young children is like leaving your ten-year-old son in front of the Rome train station at 10 p.m. and telling him: ‘I’ll be back in half an hour.'”
A total ban before the age of 14 is what one of the country’s leading educators, Daniel Novare, is proposing: “The situation is completely out of control. The lives of children and teenagers are being stolen by these devices that parents are unable to manage.” His petition, which has sparked lively debate, has almost 20,000 signatures, signed by big names in cinema, literature and psychology. “Yes, it is possible”like other forms of prohibition for minors: “If you set limits, parents will fall into line, just as they did with alcohol and tobacco.”
For the moment, cell phones are strictly forbidden in middle schools. In some schools, they were allowed in class for educational reasons. The latest part of the offensive: in the Senate, a bill is being prepared to prohibit access to social networks before the age of 16.