No smartphones in schools since the fresh school year. Trade Union Appeal to MEN

OThe introduction of a general ban on the usage of smartphones for a trial period of 3 years from 1 September 2025 calls for trade unions and the Institute of civilian Affairs.

Boat, 14 April 2025.
Madam
Barbara Nowacka
Minister for Education
al. Jan Chrystian Szuch 25
00-918 Warsaw

Call for a common ban on smartphones for a trial period of 3 years from 1 September 2025.

Minister,

We ask you to introduce from 1 September 2025

a common ban on the usage of smartphones, tablets and another mobile devices (except those strictly intended for educational activities) in nursery, kindergarten and primary schools, both public and private.

The central government regulation should include children, youth and staff of institutions. We urge a ban for a trial period of 3 years. If the subsequent evaluation shows that the ban did not bring the results, then smartphones will return to schools.

The majority of Poles and Poles – nearly 3 quarters (73%) – are in favour of the ban on the usage of smartphones by students, in schools and educational institutions. This is the consequence of the latest survey of the Centre for Social Opinion investigation (CBOS).

71% of citizens want the government to introduce uniform national rules on the usage of telephones in schools. It powerfully supports the current solution in which each school can, but does not have to, regulate itself.

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Uniform principles of digital hygiene will reduce children's health:

1. Vision problems. Even one-third of the first graders may have problems with their eyesight, according to the first estimates of the students in Katowice, as part of the Healthy imagination School initiative;
2. Increasing difficulty in concentrating attention and remembering and decreasing creativity;
3. Social isolation leading to the failure of healthy peer relationships;
4. Sensitivity to inappropriate appearance patterns promoted in parts of social media;
5. Cyber-violence threats.

The United Nations Educational, technological and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reports that on
Almost 1 in 4 countries have banned the usage of smartphones in schools worldwide. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society recommended that pre-school children not usage tablets at all.

There is simply a number of technological evidence indicating the harmful effects of smartphones and another screen devices on health, academic outcomes and social relations.

They've been talking and writing about them for years.

“Every day without a smartphone is simply a good day. The minute you give your kid a smartphone, you will fight all day – don't usage it here, don't usage it now etc. Therefore, my recommendations to parents are specified – until the kid is thirteen, fourteen – no smartphone. erstwhile more – the longer you can postpone this moment, the better for your child. There is no another answer" – recommends Prof. Manfred Spitzer, psychiatrist and neurobiologist, author of the book “Epidemia of Smartphones. Is it a threat to health, education and society?"

“I live in Italy, a country where the gestures and behaviours of people have been completely transformed by ubiquitous mobile phones, devices for which I have been passionate about large hatred and sincere disgust. Their impact on human relations is simply devastating," notes Giorgio Agamben, Italian philosopher, 1 of the most prominent thinkers of the 21st century.

"The latest investigation with neuroimaging techniques beyond uncertainty shows that excessive vulnerability to screens can neurologically destruct a developing brain of a young individual in the same way as cocaine addiction," warns Nicholas Cardaras in the book "Children of the Screen. How the addiction to the screen takes control of our children – and how to get them out of the trance.” The author is 1 of the leading addiction specialists in the United States.

We are in favour of central government regulation, not leaving decisions to individual institutions.

Teachers study to the Institute of civilian Affairs asking what to do erstwhile a parent who threatens to sue a school if the institution bans the usage of smartphones. any teachers, directors and parents are afraid about the judicial scenario, so they do not take action to introduce "local solutions for the usage of mobile phones and another individual digital devices at school".

Teachers tell us that a much better solution is the ban introduced centrally, by law by the Ministry of National Education. As in France, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal and Norway.

We urge the Minister to immediately start legislative work on changes to the rules on the usage of smartphones in schools.

With the hard results of technological research, let us learn from the mistakes of another countries, not our own, which we will announcement erstwhile it is besides late.

How do we explain the omissions? Let us stick to the precautionary principle, which should be the foundation wherever there are concerns that a given technology can origin harm to wellness and intellectual health, especially those so susceptible and dependent on adult decisions, children.

With respect,

1. Sławomir Bronarz; President, Association of Polish Teachership
2. Waldemar Jakubowski; Chairman, National Section for Education and Education of the NSZZ ‘Solidarity’
3. Sławomir Wittkovich; President, Free Trade Union "Forum-Education"; Bureau member, Trade Union Forum
4. Rafał Górski; President, civilian Affairs Institute, Citizens' run “Save Children!”

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