A British boarding school will make students use boring old Nokia phones

A lot of school districts have instituted smartphone bans for students during the school day but a British boarding school has taken it one step further. Wait, scratch that. They’ve taken it one step back.

Eton College, the historic and elite British boarding school with famous alumni such as Prince William and Harry, Ian Fleming and Tom Hiddleston, has instituted a new mobile phone policy for its first-year students starting in September. Those students will have to leave their smartphones at home but bring their SIM card to school and put it in an old school, offline Nokia cell phone with a simple number pad that can only make phone calls and send text messages, according to CBS News.

The British boarding school’s policy is based on guidelines from the UK government that allows principals to enact smartphone bans on students during the school day.

Let’s hope nobody tells school officials about Snake or those poor kids may have to actually pay attention and learn something.

Smartphone bans and guidelines are starting to seep into American school districts as well. According to data from Govspend, 41 states have at least one school district that instituted a rule requiring students to place their smartphones in magnetically sealed Yondr pouches when they go to school.

The Los Angeles Unified School District passed a district-wide school phone ban for students in June that prompted California Gov. Gavin Newsom to call for a similar law on the state level.

Meanwhile in New York City, the city’s chancellor of public schools David Banks said he plans to institute a phone ban in the coming weeks. New York Governor Kathy Hochul is working with the state’s legislature to pass two new bills that would only allow students to carry phones that don’t have access internet access

Even Florida (yes, that Florida, the one that’s home to 10 million Florida Mans) has a statewide smartphone in schools ban that also requires schools to block students from accessing social media on its Wifi networks.