In Rio, playgrounds come back to life after cell phone ban

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In Rio de Janeiro, students are starting to play “like before” and are more focused in class, a year after the ban on mobile phones that has just been extended to all of Brazil. 

In all schools in this country of 200 million people, phones are now banned, both in the classroom and in the playground, by a law promulgated in January by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, just before the start of the school year. 

Brazil, which has more smartphones than people, has thus joined a growing number of countries that have banned cell phones in schools. 

“It was difficult at first because we were addicted, there was a sort of abstinence crisis. But after, with practice, it's easier (…) and we interact more,” Kamilly Marques, 14, told AFP. 

Like most of her classmates at the Martin Luther King school, near downtown Rio, she prefers to leave her phone at home. 

Few students go near the fresco representing the icon of civil rights in the United States to leave their cell phones in a basket. 

While at first Kamilly found it “annoying” to be deprived of a phone, she is now convinced that her grades have improved. improved because of the ban, as well as her relationships with her classmates. 

“A student was being digitally bullied and we didn't even know it, we were so glued to our phones,” she says. 

– “Restless and anxious” – 

According to UNESCO, by the end of 2024, 40% of public education systems worldwide have banned the use of smartphones in schools in one way or another, compared to 30% a year earlier. 

Secretary of Education for Rio City Hall Renan Ferreirinha explains that when the city returned to in-person school after the Covid-19 pandemic, teachers in the city found children “more restless, more impatient, more anxious, and more addicted to their phones.” 

According to a survey conducted last year by the Opinion Box website and the Mobile Time platform, Brazilian children received their first mobile phone at the age of ten in average. 

Children under three spend an average of one and a half hours a day on a smartphone, and the duration rises to almost four hours for 13-16 year-olds. 

A study conducted by Rio's city council in September showed “improvements in concentration, performance and class participation” since phones were banned from local schools. 

Renan Ferreirinha, who is also a federal deputy, was the rapporteur of the law that extended Rio's pioneering measure to the national level. 

If limiting smartphone use is “difficult for an adult, imagine for a child,” he says. On a recent visit to a school in Rio, a child told him that he was playing again, “like before.” 

– “More joyful” – 

According to Fernanda Heitor, deputy head of the Martin Luther King School, which welcomes students from six to sixteen years old, the situation in the school had become “unmanageable” before the smartphone ban. 

At recess, she saw children each in their corner, focused on their screens. 

“They weren't really playing, weren't talking. Now they're playing, and it's transformed the school, which is much more lively and joyful,” she says happily. 

But Ms. Heitor expressed “reluctance” when the measure was put in place last year. “Even today, some students hide their phones before entering.”

The new law in force throughout Brazil only allows the use of mobile phones in schools for educational projects, in emergencies, or for medical reasons.

While welcoming the law, education and technology expert Fabio Campos believes it is important to teach students how to use their smartphones responsibly. 

“Brazil is a country full of inequalities. Many students only have access to technology at school. So if schools become less technological, it is a failure,” he warns. 

Renan Ferreirinha believes that parents must also impose more limits on their children. 

At Martin Luther King School, Pedro Henrique, 11, continues to come with his smartphone every day. 

“I miss my phone a lot little” during recess, he admits. “At the end of the day, I'm happy to get it back.” 

 

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