At the private Dragon School in Torrelodones (Madrid), the war against mobile phones in the classrooms has taken the definitive step. Lockers, self-regulation or a blind eye during recess are no longer enough. In the center, students carry their cell phones locked in cloth bags with a security magnet closure, which works in a similar way to the anti-theft system in supermarkets or clothing in department stores. Every morning and afternoon, students wait in line with their bags to pass by the magnet by the door, held by a pair of teachers.
The opinions of young people are divided: some experience it naturally because they have been receiving courses and workshops for years on the proper use of mobile phones and their dangers. Others, however, take it worse: “It seems bad to me, what can I tell you,” says a 17-year-old student. The management, on the other hand, is delighted: “Now we no longer have to confiscate cell phones, we have stopped acting as cop bad,” says Mariana Evangelista, director of Admissions at the center.
The school has banned cell phones since 2020. “Before the pandemic it was not a problem,” says Evangelista. “After Covid, children became terribly addicted. One day we went on an excursion where you couldn’t take a cell phone and an 11-year-old girl started screaming, crying and kicking because she didn’t have one,” he adds. They began to be stricter, but some students continued to use them in the bathroom or during free time. The school wanted to avoid going further: “You can’t be frisking the kids, what are you going to become?” says Evangelista.
A manager at the center saw an advertisement on social networks for a resource that was mainly used by American schools. It was from Yondr, an American company founded in 2014 that manufactures these bags with the aim of creating mobile-free spaces. Bob Dylan used them on his last tour and they have been used in courts, libraries, weddings and museums. Its main product is the bag where the mobile phone is locked, and is only opened with a magnet when leaving the space.
The school contacted them and in May they signed an agreement. The US is the country with the most schools with bags, according to the company. In Europe, the two main ones are the United Kingdom and Ireland. There are 16 countries in the world that use Yondr products, the majority in Europe. In Spain only the Dragon School uses this resource.
Yondr says it is in contact with Spanish authorities. Asked by this newspaper, the company says it has had conversations with the Department of Education of the Generalitat of Catalonia and with the offices of the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and his deputy mayor, Maria Eugènia Gay. None of these institutions confirm that there have been formal meetings with Yondr.
Along with families, the other great battlefield for teenagers when it comes to using a mobile phone is school or institute. In Galicia, Castilla-La Mancha and Madrid, cell phones are prohibited, while the rest is left in the hands of each center. But theory is much easier than practice: there are teachers who ask for cell phones to look at a map or a app educational, in the playgrounds no one watches every corner and many families want their children to maintain certain access in case they have to talk to them.
In a private email addressed to a group of parents, to which EL PAÍS has had access, a teacher describes the situation at his institute in Madrid: “Mobile phones are prohibited in schools by regulations, it is not a debatable issue. The problem is to enforce it or who should enforce it. From the moment we let them take their cell phone to school, it depends on the students whether or not they pay attention to us when it is time to use it. If they carry it, they should leave it in their backpack, turned off, when they enter the institute. It seems that it is allowed in class if the teacher lets you take it out to do a certain activity, which in the end also confuses the students,” he writes. Even if some are required, it is a lost battle on so many fronts. Hence the Dragon School opted for this solution.
“It’s my temptation”
“To be honest, I find it a temptation,” says an 18-year-old student at the Dragon School, while holding the Yondr bag in her hand. She has something of a chastity belt or a condom, depending on how you look at it: the object of desire is in there and there is no access. Mobile phones must be turned off inside the bag to prevent students from connecting to it with tablets or computers. Smart watches also go inside the envelope. To prevent any attempts at cheating, the school has numbered the seven magnets used to open the bags at the exit of the center. So I do not know they lose.
“Teachers and parents are delighted,” says Helder Marques, Director of Operations at Dragon School. “Among children, perhaps the older ones have more problems. When we had the introductory meeting on September 13, we said, ‘We have a great gift for you.’ They were delighted: ‘What is the school going to give us? A cup?'”. But not. It was a gray bag to enclose the cell phone. The Dragon School bought 200 bags for the 160 students it has with mobile phones. The prices, according to Yondr, are around 30 euros per bag, although they can give discounts, like in Torrelodones, where they paid about 20 euros per bag.
At the Dragon School they have taken this step because the families accepted it in a previous meeting. “Other schools may think that the family will experience it with anger or that the student will be angry. That’s why we have to teach them, first, that this is good for them, that it is for their future,” says Marques. His school does constant courses and workshops on the problems that the use of networks or cell phone addiction can cause. Many of his students understand these limitations and accept them without further ado.
The school considers that mobile phones are more harmful than positive and are convinced of their bet. “Children waste a lot of time on their cell phones and do not have the maturity to know that that time does not return,” says Evangelista. “I think this helps them become aware of the interaction with others, it gives them the opportunity to open the window a little more.” Inside the classrooms, the school allows the use of a computer or tablet for work. “In class, these kids are less anxious. They work better, they are more relaxed. There is no fight,” adds Evangelista.
Despite this battle against mobile phones, the problem, says management, is not the technology itself. “We also use artificial intelligence a lot,” says Marques, with tools like ChatGPT. “You are not denying them technology, you are warning them to become aware that when they are not with this, all they can do,” says Evangelista.
Experts have doubts
EL PAÍS has consulted with two experts in digital disconnection about the usefulness of this type of extraordinary limits for mobile phone use. As usual, there are no definitive answers and it often depends on the adolescent affected and other factors surrounding them. “In terms of self-control, bags can help some people because they eliminate the immediate temptation to look at their phones, which reduces distractions. However, for others, not being fully available can be a stressor,” says Mehri S. Agai, a researcher at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Although the objective of these measures tends to be to educate young people so that they do not reproduce some bad adult habits, it must be taken into account that their digital needs may be different: these periods of digital disconnection “require more effort for adolescents as a group ” says Agai. “The reason is that they depend on the digital world for their leisure, socialization and, most importantly, in their attempts to form their identity. “They have grown up in a world where digital technology is ubiquitous,” she adds.
This does not mean that teenagers do not disconnect: “Of course they do, but it may be more difficult for them,” says Agai. “In fact, there are studies that show that younger people disconnect more intentionally because they are more technology-savvy than older generations. “They know how to disconnect by strategically using their phone’s apps, modes, and other settings,” she adds.
The main challenge of these methods is to accompany them with constant education, both by word and example. And this is not always the case, according to Patricia Dias, a professor at the Catholic University of Portugal: “Learning to self-regulate is a very important skill for children, and they face increasing difficulties in doing so because they live in a world of instant feedback. , permanent connection and immediate reward. If we rely on bans, making devices inaccessible, and surveillance, what will children do when no one is watching or watching them? The best thing is to support them so that they learn to make good decisions, so that they can be independent and autonomous. These bags can be a temporary stage in this learning process, or even part of a gamified system, but they are not the solution. The solution is self-regulation,” says Dias.
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