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Classrooms Without Smartphones β€” Two Years of the Dutch Experiment

If you take a smartphone away from a student, will they learn better? No country has run this experiment at greater scale than the Netherlands.

In January 2024, the Netherlands implemented a nationwide ban on smartphones in secondary schools β€” not just during lessons, but during breaks, in hallways, and even in cafeterias. Two years into the experiment, the results are in. They are more complicated than expected.

Table of Contents

  1. Why the Netherlands Banned Smartphones
  2. The Two-Year Report Card: 75% Report Better Focus
  3. What New Research Is Warning
  4. France, UK, and Finland: How Others Are Responding
  5. The Real Lesson: It's About Education, Not Just Banning

1. Why the Netherlands Banned Smartphones

The Dutch government's decision to ban smartphones came from a confluence of concerns: declining classroom concentration, disrupted lessons, and growing worries about cyberbullying.

Teachers were watching students scroll Instagram while lessons were in progress. During breaks, students stared at screens instead of talking to each other. Educators reported that smartphones were degrading both the social fabric of the classroom and learning efficiency. The government acted.

The scope of the ban was broad. In addition to class time, smartphones, smartwatches, and tablets were banned during breaks, corridors, and cafeterias.

2. The Two-Year Report Card: 75% Report Better Focus

A government-commissioned survey of 317 secondary schools returned results that were largely positive.

  • 75% of schools reported that students' ability to concentrate had improved.
  • 59% of schools said the social atmosphere in and around the classroom had improved β€” students talked more during breaks and engaged more actively in lessons.
  • 28% of schools reported measurable improvements in academic performance.

A notable side effect was that students felt freer to be themselves at school, no longer worried about being photographed and ending up on Snapchat or Instagram without their consent. Reports of bullying-related incidents also decreased.

3. What New Research Is Warning

Studies published in 2025 and 2026 tell a more nuanced story.

A Springer Nature study (2025) examining Dutch secondary schools found that outcomes vary significantly depending on the type of ban. Full bans β€” covering all school hours and spaces β€” were associated with lower student-teacher connectedness. Among girls in particular, a sense of belonging to school actually decreased under the strictest bans. The implication is that blanket restrictions can inadvertently cut off healthy social connection, not just screen time.

The University of Birmingham's 2026 study analyzed 1,227 students across 30 UK schools. It found that students in ban schools appeared to compensate for lost screen time by cutting sleep to use their phones more at night. The school ban did not reduce total daily usage β€” students in both ban and non-ban schools averaged 4 to 6 hours per day on their phones.

4. France, UK, and Finland: How Others Are Responding

The Netherlands' experiment has influenced other countries. France, Hungary, and Finland have all moved to implement school smartphone restrictions.

France was actually an early mover, having banned smartphones for students under 15 in 2018. Since 2024 it has tightened those rules further.

The UK has opted for a school-by-school approach rather than a national mandate, but the "Smartphone Free Childhood" campaign has spread widely, and growing numbers of schools have voluntarily adopted bans.

5. The Real Lesson: It's About Education, Not Just Banning

Putting all the research together, one core lesson emerges.

Smartphone bans do have real effects within schools. They reduce in-class distractions and increase face-to-face interaction among students. But banning alone is not enough.

What happens to students' phone use outside the banned space β€” and how that use affects sleep, mental health, and learning β€” requires a comprehensive digital literacy curriculum alongside any policy restriction.

Confiscating a smartphone masks the symptoms of a problem. The real solution is teaching children to manage their relationship with technology themselves. After two years, the Dutch experiment is proving exactly that.

"A ban can be a starting point, but it is not the destination. Teaching students to use digital devices wisely is the real education." β€” University of Birmingham, 2026

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Classrooms Without Smartphones β€” Two Years of the Dutch Experiment | MINSSAM.COM