Mobile phones banned in Bavarian schools

The German state of Bavaria today announced a ban on the use of mobile phones in schools to prevent students from viewing images of pornography and extreme violence.

Students can still carry their phones, but will have to leave them switched off during school hours, including during breaks, state education minister Siegfried Schneider said.

The ban comes after police recently found pornography and violent images on mobile phones seized from students at schools in the Bavarian towns of Augsburg and Immenstadt.

“School is no place for phoning and certainly not for distributing concoctions that endanger youth,” Schneider said.