Will smartphones be banned in Hungarian schools?

Most Hungarians want smartphones banned from schools and regard phone addiction as a serious problem, according to a recent survey.

A government decree introduced in August restricts the use of mobile phones in schools and comes on the heels of similar strict limits placed on smartphone use in schools in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Greece, Finland and Sweden.

The survey commissioned by the St István Institute published on Wednesday examined the views of Hungarian adults concerning how they see problems caused by smartphone use by young people as well as their opinion of the new government decree.

According to the survey carried out by the Nézőpont Institute, 94 percent saw smartphone use by young people as problematic, while 85 percent backed the government’s restrictions.

More than 60 percent of Hungarian adults see children using smartphones mostly for entertainment while this rises to 73 percent in households raising children.

Children can legally join social media platforms from the age of 13 under current laws, and in general most respondents saw this as too lenient. In Budapest, however, 47 percent considered the regulation appropriate, with 44 percent seeing it as too light.

The survey was carried out with a representative sample of 1,000 adults.

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