Smartphones and tablets will be banned in Italian classrooms - even for teaching purposes - under new guidelines in Italy. “The use of smartphones and tablets can often create tension between students and teachers, sometimes also leading to acts of aggression against school staff,” said Italy's education minister Giuseppe Valditara. 

The ban will include students from kindergarten, primary and lower secondary schools. It extends an existing ban on the non-academic use of smart devices introduced in Italy in 2007, though it has not always been enforced. Last year, the UN's educational, cultural and scientific agency UNESCO recommended that smartphones be banned from schools around the world.