In statements to Lusa agency about the Digital Well-being Week, which starts on Monday, the expert on the use of information technologies by children and young people and founder of the project MiudosSegurosNa.Net, Tito de Morais, considered that it is always best to listen to young people first, before any decision, even to hold them accountable and lead them to comply with the decision.

Cristiane Miranda, who has over 20 years of experience in this area and is a mentor of the project Teen On Top -- Coaching para Jovens, also argues: "we think that [prohibiting] is not the best solution".

"It is not the best solution to say that the state must come and regulate and simply prohibit the use of mobile phones in schools", said the expert, adding: "when we go to schools and talk to students, they have a lot to say and have solutions".

And she explains: "Each school is sovereign to decide what to do, but listening to all stakeholders, from teachers, teaching staff, non-teaching staff and the students themselves, and seeing what the best solutions are".

The expert also told one of the conversations with one of the young people from a school that the project visited. "We asked if it should be prohibited and the young man replied: 'it depends on the weather. When it's sunny, we can be outside, running, playing ball and doing other things, but when it rains we have to stay inside the pavilion and we can't talk, we have to sit here and nobody lets us do anything and that's when we have to use our mobile phones'".

She insists that, when young people are involved in the solution, "they accept it better and adhere to it".

In addition, she says, "if we just ban them, we also don't teach them how to use these technologies properly".

This topic will be the subject of discussion at the international conference that will take place on May 3 and 4 at the Cupertino de Miranda Foundation (Porto), within the scope of the Digital Well-being Week (https://www.bemestardigital.pt).

The debate on the use of mobile phones in schools will be attended by representatives of the National Association of Directors of Groupings and Public Schools (ANDAEP), the National Confederation of Parents' Associations and the author of Mónica Pereira, author of a petition calling for an end to mobile phones in the 5th and 6th grade breaks and which has already been signed by over 22,000 people.

A school in Lourosa, in Santa Maria da Feira, was the first in the country to ban the use of mobile phones throughout the premises, seven years ago. Since then, the limitation has been extended to others, such as, for example, the Basic School EB 2,3 General Serpa Pinto, in Cinfães, in the district of Viseu, the basic schools of Alto de Algés and Miraflores, both in Oeiras, the school groups of Gil Vicente (Lisbon) and Infanta D. Mafalda (Gondomar), in addition to school groups in Almeirim (Santarém).

The controversy raised by the issue led the Ministry of Education to ask, last year, for an opinion from the Council of Schools, which considered that the solution to respond to the negative impacts of the use of mobile phones in a school context does not involve prohibiting its use, but argued that the groups themselves should decide.

Despite the negative impacts and the "complex issues of discipline, namely the improper capture of images or cyberbullying" that arise with the widespread use of mobile phones, especially from the 2nd cycle, the directors emphasize that there are, on the other hand, positive aspects.

In the classroom, they say, 'smartphones' can constitute "resources available to students and teachers to promote learning" and allow "enhancing the development of essential skills according to the Profile of Students Leaving Compulsory Schooling".

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