Back to basics: Sweden aims to de-digitalize youth

Flashback to 2017, where Sweden's five-year digitalization strategy for schools stated that its main objectives were to "create further opportunities for digitalization, achieve a high level of digital competence (especially in the context of children, students, and younger people), and promote the development of knowledge and equal opportunities and access to technology."

Now Sweden has the second-highest use of the internet in the European Union, after Denmark, and the government is worried there may be too many opportunities for young people to stay connected in the classroom. Social Affairs and Public Health Minister Jakob Forssmed is leading an effort to get students to rebalance real life and TikTok reels.

No smartphones for entire schoolday

"Schools have a responsibility to prepare [children] for the world," Forssmed affirms. "But my God," he says, throwing his hands wide in consternation, "what we're seeing now is something else." Forssmed says Swedish students are suffering widespread disorders and a decline in physical and intellectual capabilities due to the hours spent online.

"They cannot cut with scissors. They cannot climb a tree. They cannot walk backward because they are sitting with their cell phones," he told DW in an interview at the ministry in Stockholm. "We are also seeing things like diseases that usually were in old people and middle-aged people now haunting young people" due to lack of physical activity.

That's why Forssmed is pushing for restrictions on personal digital devices in school to be enshrined in national law and made mandatory rather than just recommended, as is currently the case.

The government’s proposal for the new law would allow students up to 9th grade to have no access to their devices during the entire time spent in school, including breaks.

Their case is bolstered by new guidelines issued earlier this month by the Swedish Public Health Agency advising no screen time at all for toddlers below the age of two, one hour total for those aged two to five, two hours tops for those six to 12 and for teenagers, three hours maximum.

Forssmed believes the problem of sleep deprivation among teens is underestimated. He says the latest research shows Swedish teenagers are getting fewer than six hours per night largely due to their devices when they should be getting eight to nine hours. "That gives them less resilience when it comes to stress," he said, "more risk of depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety." Girls are especially affected, he says, with scientific evidence proving social media "exposes you at an early age to eating disorders, feeling less good about your body."

Fused to phones

Patrik Sander, a vice-principal in the southern Swedish city of Malmo, told DW the secondary school where he works has been taking away mobile phones for years now, although students get them back for lunchtime. He said the policy had been implemented because there were signs "on the border to misuse and addiction" and that when the devices were taken away during classes, you could still see students' "hands searching for them." "So I was a bit frightened when I saw this," he said, "and not for my own sake, but for them."

Another disturbing behavior Sander hopes is curbed with confiscation is bullying. He says female students at his school have had classmates take surreptitious photos in the changing room for gym, for example, and spread them around.

11-year-old: "We get addicted"

Raising awareness about the risks of addiction seems to be working with elementary school students in Arsta, a Stockholm suburb, where pupils deposit their devices in the morning in handmade bags they created themselves and only get them back at the end of the day. All four of the 10-and 11-year-olds interviewed by DW independently without a teacher admitted they would have a very hard time concentrating without this system.

"We use Snapchat and TikTok a lot and you get addicted sometimes," explained Emma, "so you don't want to put away your phone." "If you have it beside you, you always want to check it," added her classmate Livia.

Their classmate Lucas said even if he could have his phone back during lunch break he'd rather play football with his friends then but during class he'd be tempted to use it. Esia, meanwhile, acknowledged point-blank that he wouldn't pay attention. "I would most likely just get sucked into my phone," he said, adding that this is because school is "so boring" in comparison. He said he spends three or four hours per day online outside of school, while the other three students said they have automatic lock-out after two or two-and-a-half hours.

This is one reason teacher Asa Lind would like to see schools add further restrictions. She thinks the one- to two-hour recommendation from the Swedish Public Health Agency is already quite a lot, and that doesn't include whatever time may have been spent online as part of the school curriculum. "I think we could take a look at how we use our school days and actually limit and restrict for the younger kids the use of screens during class," she said, "because I think it's a lot of time they do tend to sit by themselves with headphones on the computer doing assignments."

Teachers tied to Teams

For some older students, however, there's no way out of constantly using their phones, even if they wanted to. Lovisa Hedelin and Nils Conning are music students at Sodra Latins Gymnasium, where school schedules are constantly posted and updated on Microsoft Teams. Conning says he's even been chastised for not checking details on his phone just before class.

But theirs may be an unusual case because it would also be impossible to play their instruments and scroll their phones at the same time, Hedelin points out. "If there were more people that actually used their phone during class, maybe then more teachers would have them turn them in," she said. It's unclear what impact pending legislation would have on special curricula like theirs.

At the same time, Conning said he really did have to get strict with himself in his free time, as during one period, he found himself scrolling until 3 a.m. "I realized that doesn't work," he said.

Violin teacher Linda Toivola says while she never has to take phones away from her music students, she has three of her own children in other schools and she's looking forward to Minister Forssmed's tougher rules on their use of devices. "I would love it!" she said. "And that's what I expect as a parent."

Edited by: Andreas Illmer