Overview
- North Rhine-Westphalia is having school conferences of parents, teachers and students set phone rules, a looser approach than Bavaria and Hesse’s top‑down bans.
- Thuringia now enforces a ban in primary schools for the current year, and a similar bill in Saxony failed in May.
- Saxony’s education minister Conrad Clemens is preparing a statewide ban for 2026, keeping the issue active in state policymaking.
- An August 2024 study found that banning private phones at school raised social well‑being and slightly improved learning, with no disadvantages reported by co‑author Klaus Zierer.
- The Leopoldina urged under‑13 restrictions for platforms such as TikTok and Instagram in August 2025, with researcher Ralph Hertwig warning that design and content overwhelm younger children.