For parents
Your child keeps their phone. They just do not use it during the school day.
Since the 2025 school year, Belgian schools must ban smartphone use. BeShield pouches let them do it without confiscation.
Updated
Why does the school use pouches?
The decree sets the ban, and each school organises it in its rules. The pouch makes the rule simple and the same for everyone: your child keeps their phone but cannot use it during the day.
How do I reach my child in an emergency?
As before smartphones: call the school, which tells your child. An adult can open the pouch at any time.
Is the phone safe?
It stays with your child: no phone box, no locker, no confiscation. The pouches come with a 24-month warranty.
And at home?
The pouch works at school, not at home. For sleep, studies link a screen in the bedroom to shorter, poorer sleep (Carter et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 2016). A simple habit: the phone spends the night outside the bedroom.
What research shows
Pouches clearly reduce phone use in class. Their effect on grades is modest: what mostly changes is the climate of the school day.
61% → 13%
Share of pupils using their phone in class, according to teachers, before and after lockable pouches were adopted in US schools.
Allcott et al., NBER, 2026Less bullying
In Norway, banning smartphones in lower secondary schools was associated with less bullying between pupils.
Abrahamsson, Journal of Human Resources, 202659% → 94%
Share of pupils with their own phone in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, from the last year of primary to the first year of secondary.
#Génération2024, Média Animation and CSEM, 2024Sleep
A screen within reach in the bedroom is associated with shorter, poorer sleep in children.
Carter et al., JAMA Pediatrics, 2016
Frequently asked questions from parents
Your child's school is not equipped yet?
Pass this page on to the school, or ask it to contact us: we reply within 24 business hours.