Poland to Ban Cell Phones in Schools Starting September 1, 2026

Handphone (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The use of mobile phones will be banned in Polish schools starting September 1, 2026, said Education Minister Barbara Nowacka.

"We are completing the task at the ministry on legislative changes, a very significant legislative change for schools, a change that will ban the use of mobile phones in primary schools from September 1, 2026," Nowacka said, quoting Antara.

He said that children should only use the phone at school, unless with the permission of the teacher.

Nowacka added that exceptions could be made for didactic purposes at the discretion of teachers, but this could not become the norm because children depended on the internet.

A number of academic studies have documented the mental health risks of social media use by young people, as well as the dangers of cell phone-induced disorders among adolescents.

Previously, a study revealed that children who start having smart phones before the age of 12 are at a higher risk of experiencing a number of health problems, both physical and mental.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics in December 2025, was conducted by a team of researchers from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University, reported PEOPLE.

The researchers analyzed data on more than 10,000 children and adolescents aged 9 to 16 years in the United States in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study collected from 2018 to 2020.

The results showed that the children studied had a 1.3 times higher risk of depression; 1.6 times more at risk of sleep deprivation; and 1.4 times more at risk of obesity, compared to children who did not have smart phones at the age of 12.