Over half of countries have banned phones in schools: UNESCO

UNESCO reports over half of countries have banned phones in schools due to concerns about attention, cyberbullying, and social media impact.

More than half of the countries have banned phones in schools amid mounting concerns about declining attention in classrooms and cyberbullying, according to the UNSECO's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team.

The team found that girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer from eating disorders exacerbated by social media usage.

Facebook's own research revealed that 32% of teenage girls felt worse about their bodies after using Instagram.

The report noted alarming trends related to TikTok's algorithm, which targets teenagers with body image content every 39 seconds and promotes content related to eating disorders every eight minutes.

"Recent global monitoring shows that 114 education systems now have a national ban on mobile phones in schools, representing 58% of countries worldwide. The expansion has been rapid. Less than 1 in 4 countries (24%) had bans in June 2023, when it was first monitored in the 2023 GEM Report. By early 2025, this had risen to 40%, and by March 2026, that share is almost 20 percentage points higher," a senior member of GEM told PTI.

"The growth reflects mounting concerns about declining attention in classrooms, cyberbullying, and the broader influence of digital environments on children. But the global picture is more nuanced than a simple shift toward prohibition," the official added.