Bulacan lawmaker Rida Robes is seeking to ban the use of smartphones and electronic gadgets in all schools both private and public for grade 10 students and below.
This means that students aging 15 years old and below will not be allowed to use smartphones and gadgets while inside school premises.
Robes cited the negative effects of smartphones among the youth.
The lawmaker cited studies about the impacts of smartphones and gadgets on the youth’s mental health.
“Interfering with education, diminishing academic performance, promoting cyber-bullying and contributing to an increase in teenage anxiety, depression and suicide,” Robes explained in her bill.
The lawmaker said parents should push back the age when they allow their kids to use smartphones to 16.
“As a nation and responsible parents, we owe it to our future generation to shield them from unnecessary dangers and factors that hinder their full growth. and today’s biggest danger is the growing addiction,” the lawmaker said.
Should the bill be approved into law, all mobile devices must be surrendered to school authorities until dismissal time.
