New law in Brazil is making students put away their smartphones at school

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian students returned to class this week with a new task: staying away from their smartphones as a new law restricting their use in schools took effect.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a bill in January limiting smartphone access at schools, in line with a trend seen in the U.S. and Europe. It applies to public and private schools, and applies to classrooms and the halls.

Phones are still allowed for educational purposes, with the teacher’s permission, and when needed for the student's accessibility and health. Schools can set their own guidelines, such as whether students can keep phones in backpacks or store them in lockers or designated baskets.

Before the federal law, most of Brazil's 26 states — including Rio de Janeiro, Maranhao and Goias — had already applied some restrictions to phone use in schools. As of 2023, nearly two-thirds of Brazilian schools had some limitations, with 28% banning them entirely, according to a survey last year by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee.

But rules varied between states and between schools, and authorities and administrators struggled with enforcement.

That may have contributed to support for federal legislation from across the political spectrum — both allies of leftist Lula and the far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. A survey released in October by Brazilian pollster Datafolha said that almost two-thirds of respondents wanted to ban smartphone use by children and teenagers at schools. More than three-quarters said those devices do more harm than good to their children.

Porto Seguro, a nearly 150-year-old private school in Sao Paulo, prohibited smartphones in classrooms last year and encouraged students to disconnect completely once a week. This year, it expanded its ban to include hallways, requiring students to keep their phones in lockers for the entire school day, including breaks.

“Students were having trouble concentrating," school principal Meire Nocito said in an interview Thursday. “There was also the issue of social isolation. Many students who used technology excessively would isolate themselves during breaks, interacting only through social media.”

“Banning cellphone use has helped create a space for social interaction, fostering relationships and teaching students to navigate conflicts, which are a natural part of human interactions. It has been very positive,” she added.

Brazil’s Ministry of Education said in a statement Monday that the restriction aims to protect students’ mental and physical health while promoting more rational use of technology.

In May, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, a leading think-tank and university, said Brazil had more smartphones than people, with 258 million devices for a population of 203 million Brazilians. Local market researchers said last year that Brazilians spend 9 hours and 13 minutes per day on screens, which is among one of the world’s highest rates of use.

Institutions, governments, parents and others have for years associated smartphone use by children with bullying, suicidal ideation, anxiety and loss of concentration necessary for learning. China moved last year to limit children’s use of smartphones, while France has in place a ban on smartphones in schools for kids aged six to 15.

Cell phone bans have gained traction across the United States, where eight states have passed laws or policies that ban or restrict cellphone use to try to curb student phone access and minimize distractions in classrooms.

An increasing number of parents across Europe who are concerned by evidence that smartphone use among young kids jeopardizes their safety and mental health.

A report published in September by the U.N.'s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, said one in four countries has already restricted the use of such devices at schools.

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg apologized used a U.S. Senate hearing last year to apologize to parents of children exploited, bullied or driven to self harm via social media. He also noted Meta’s continued investments in “industrywide” efforts to protect children.

Mariana Waetge, a 13-year-old student at Porto Seguro, has owned a smartphone for five years. She uses it to communicate with friends and family and to find entertainment on social media, especially Instagram. Being forced to stay away from her phone made her find new ways to interact with friends, improved her focus and even strengthened her relationship with her family.

The restriction also helped "include people who didn’t have many friends and would use their phones to hide from making new friends or to avoid being out there,” she said in an interview. “Now they don’t have that option anymore. These people end up playing board games or reading books.”

AP videojournalist Thiago Mostazo contributed to this report.

Students return to class after recess during their first week in school under a new law restricting the use mobile phones in school classrooms at Porto Seguro School in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A sign reads in Portuguese " The use of cell phones in the school is prohibited" at Porto Seguro school in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A student stores her mobile phone in a locker at Porto Seguro School in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, before heading to class under a new law restricting their use in schools. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Students attend a class at Porto Seguro School on their first week at school under a new law that forbids the use of mobile phones on campus, in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Students store their mobile phones in lockers at Porto Seguro School in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025, as they head to class under a new law that forbids their use in schools. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Students play cards during recess in their first week at school under a new law that forbids the use of mobile phones on campus, at Porto Seguro School in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Students store their mobile phones in lockers as they head to class under a new law restricting their use on campus at Porto Seguro School in Sao Paulo, Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025.. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world's woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, emphasized Easter’s message of hope as a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after being crucified.

“Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!” the pope implored.

With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its second month and Russia’s ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo acknowledged a sense of indifference “to the deaths of thousands of people ... to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow … to the economic and social consequences they produce.’’

Without mentioning the wars by name, Leo quoted his predecessor, Pope Francis, who during his last public appearance from the same loggia last Easter reminded the faithful of the “great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day.’’

Francis, weakened by a long illness, died the next day on Easter Monday.

The Urbi et Orbi blessing, Latin for “to the city and the world,’’ has traditionally included a litany of the world’s woes. Leo followed that formula during his Christmas blessing. There was no immediate explanation for the shift.

Earlier, Leo addressed some 50,000 faithful from an open-air altar in St. Peter’s Square flanked with white roses, while the steps leading down to the piazza where the faithful gathered were filled with spring perennials, symbolically resonating with the pope’s words.

He implored the faithful in his homily to keep their hope in the face of death, which lurks "in the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys.’’

Speaking from the loggia, the pope announced a prayer vigil for peace April 11 in the basilica.

“On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that makes us feel powerless in the face of evil,’’ he said.

Leo greeted the global faithful in 10 languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Latin, reviving a practice that his predecessor Pope Francis had let lapse.

Before retreating into the basilica, Leo stepped forward out of the loggia’s shadow and waved to the cheering crowd below. He later greeted people in the piazza from the popemobile that took him all the way down Via della Conciliazione toward the Tiber River and back.

During the marathon that is Holy Week, Leo also reclaimed the tradition of washing priests’ feet on Holy Thursday, a gesture of encouragement toward clergy, after Francis had chosen a more inclusive path, traveling to prisons and homes for the disabled to wash the feet of women, non-Christians and prisoners.

The 70-year-old pontiff also became the first pope in decades to carry the light wooden cross for the entire 14 stations during the Way of the Cross on Good Friday.

Traditional ceremonies at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, revered by Christians as the traditional site of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, were scaled back under an agreement with Israeli police. Authorities have put limits on the sizes of public gatherings due to ongoing missile attacks.

The restrictions also dampened the recent Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr holiday, as well as the current weeklong Jewish festival of Passover. On Sunday, the Jewish priestly blessing at the Western Wall — normally attended by tens of thousands — was limited to just 50 people.

The restrictions have strained relations between Israeli authorities and Christian leaders. Police last week prevented two of the church’s top religious leaders, including Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

On Tuesday, the pope had expressed hope that the war could be finished before Easter.

Armenian Christians celebrated Easter at a church in Iran’s capital on Sunday, striving to maintain a sense of normalcy five weeks into the war.

Families embraced and children exchanged painted eggs at the St. Sarkis Cathedral in central Tehran. Iran’s capital has been targeted by daily airstrikes since the United States and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.

“Whether we like it or not, we have young children who do not understand what’s going on,” said Juanita Arakel, 40, an English language teacher. “They just need to feel normal.”

The Islamic Republic, with a population of around 90 million, is home to some 300,000 Christians, mostly Armenians, and three seats in parliament are reserved for Christians.

“My appeal first is to those who started the war to look up to the sky where love and mutual respect was given to us, whether through the birth of Jesus or his rising from the dead,” said Sepuh Sargsyan, the archbishop of the Armenian Diocese of Tehran. “Our calls and prayers are that we will be able to end this war.”

Barry reported from Milan. Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem and Bassem Mroue in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful at the end of Easter Mass he presided over in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV addresses the faithful after delivering the Urbi et Orbi blessing - Latin for "to the city of Rome and to the world" - from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica at the end of Easter Mass he presided over in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV delivers the Urbi et Orbi blessing - Latin for "to the city of Rome and to the world" - from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica at the end of Easter Mass he presided over in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV addresses the faithful after delivering the Urbi et Orbi blessing - Latin for "to the city of Rome and to the world" - from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica at the end of Easter Mass he presided over in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV presides over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Clergy follow Pope Leo XIV as he presides over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV presides over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Easter Mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026 (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Leo XIV sprinkles holy water with a bunch of hyssop sprigs as he presides over Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)