Mobile phone use ban in French high schools begins next week

From the start of the 2026-27 school year, French high school students will no longer be allowed to use mobile phones or other connected devices at school.

The measure, already in place in primary schools (école primaire) and middle schools (collège), will now be extended to high schools (lycée). The law was adopted in July and signed into law on August 24.

The Education Ministry says that excessive exposure to screens can affect attention, sleep, health, social relationships and learning. A 2025 Ipsos study for France's National Book Centre found that 15 to 19-year-olds spent an average of 5 hours and 19 minutes a day on screens.

What is changing?

Until now, French high schools could decide for themselves whether and where students were allowed to use their phones.

However, from the start of the new school year, phone use by students is prohibited in schools, middle schools and high schools, including in school-related teaching activities taking place outside the school grounds.

The ban will cover smartphones as well as other electronic communication devices, such as smartwatches.

Students will still be able to bring their phones to school, but they will not be allowed to use them. Exactly how phones are kept out of use will be decided by each school's internal rules.

Schools could require students to keep them switched off in their bags, for example, or use a system such as ‘Portable en pause’, where phones are physically put away during the school day.

There will also be exceptions, including for certain educational uses or specific situations authorised by a school. Students with a disability or an invalidating health condition will also be exempt where an authorised device is needed.

What happens if students break the rules?

Students who use their phones despite the ban could have them confiscated.

Confiscation can also be combined with another punishment, such as detention but the confiscation cannot last beyond the end of the day's teaching activities.

Concerns about the ban

“We haven't had time to prepare,” Carole Zerbib, headteacher of Lycée Vauquelin in Paris and a member of the leadership of the SNPDEN-UNSA school leaders' union told Franceinfo.

She said her school would apply the measure, but questioned whether schools alone could solve the problem of excessive phone use. She noted that students could very well spend more time on their phones after school to make up for the time they did not have access to them during the day.

“If we ban phones at school, and then students go home and make up for lost time by looking at their phones, the measure will be pointless,” Ms Zerbib said.

What do you think about the ban? You can share your opinion at feedback@connexionfrance.com