Vienna, Mar. 10, (dpa/GNA) – Mobile phones are to be banned at Austrian schools, Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr said on Monday.
While schools have in the past made their own rules concerning phones, the new national regulation marked a change of approach, Wiederkehr said, arguing that it would better support the work of teachers and school administrators.
Schools would be able to define their own exceptions to the ban, he added.
The well known health risks of intensive phone use and changes to social behaviour in schools demanded action, Wiederkehr said. Interpersonal contact should replace looking at screens during school breaks, he said.
The new measure would also mean changes for parents. “Some parents want to contact their children constantly during school hours,” he noted.
Wiederkehr described phones as a “concentration killer.”
A Vienna Medical University expert said intensive use tended to cause irritability and disrupt sleep patterns, as well as depression and compulsive behaviour.
GNA