A muted phone still buzzes in a teenager’s pocket, waiting to be picked up. European schools have already banned phones from classrooms to fight the same distraction. But teachers and students say the real problem is not the alerts. It is an app designed to pull teenagers back in regardless.
The settlement requires Meta to mute most notifications for teenagers during school hours by default. It also caps their daily use of Instagram and Facebook at two hours, restricts access to parts of both apps at night, and introduces regular prompts urging teenagers to stop scrolling. No equivalent rules currently apply in the EU.
Phone bans or platform reform?
European governments are increasingly restricting smartphones in schools. France has limited phones in primary and secondary schools. The Netherlands introduced restrictions on non-educational use. Others adopted rules covering different ages and parts of the school day. The measures vary, but the objective is the same: remove a major source of distraction.
Petra van Haren, director of the European School Heads Association (ESHA), says restricting notifications could complement rules already in place at schools. “It can certainly be helpful to have rules within the EU about restricting social media notifications during schooltime hours, or even bedtime hours,” she told EU Perspectives.
But she acknowledges that restrictions alone will not stop teenagers from finding ways around them, or change behaviour overnight. “We must be aware that young people are very clever and skilled in bypassing rules and restrictions if they really want to,” she said. “Still, like with restrictions on smoking in public spaces, once the rules are clear, behaviour can be influenced and supported, and it may take some time to actually change behaviour.”
A problem beyond notifications
Kacper Bogalecki, board member of the Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU), agrees such measures could contribute to a healthier digital environment. But both point to a problem that goes deeper than switching phones off during lessons.
For school leaders, concerns include reduced concentration, poorer school performance, cyberbullying, hate speech, sexual content and commercial risks. That makes digital literacy an educational task not just a regulatory one. “We have to teach our pupils to be critical thinkers, to be resilient and creative and be self-confident,” van Haren said.
Cooperation between schools and families is therefore essential, she believes. “When schools and parents collaborate and discuss their vision on smartphone use and how to have a consistent approach, it can be a successful way to guide our young people,” she said.
The question of responsibility
The question of responsibility runs through the whole debate: how much responsibility should fall on parents, schools, and platforms? For Bogalecki, the responsibility “does not simply rest with young people, their parents, or their schools,” he said. “They rest with the platforms themselves.” OBESSU wants platforms to redesign features that drive addictive use, rather than just limit distractions. “We need to hold them accountable for their design choices, business models, and algorithms,” Bogalecki said.
We need to hold them accountable for their design choices, business models, and algorithms. — Kacper Bogalecki, board member, Organising Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU)
The European Commission says its own approach goes further than individual safeguards. Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier has said Brussels does not want to stop at measures such as muting notifications during school hours. “We will not settle with one or two safeguards,” Regnier said. The Commission wants Meta to address what it describes as the “core addictive design features” of its platforms.
Meta is already engaging with the Commission, but Brussels does not yet consider the company’s response sufficient. “We have nothing satisfactory on the table to allow us to close the case,” Regnier said, referring to the ongoing Digital Services Act investigation. The Commission is also expected to announce measures on children’s access to social media.
