Thanks to the newly enforced Chongqing Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Regulation, educational institutions across Chongqing will be legally empowered starting September 1, 2026, to prohibit students from carrying and using smartphones and all other intelligent electronic devices within school premises.
Chongqing is part of a growing number of Chinese cities rolling out such campus restrictions. As early as 2022, Fujian Province put in place a rule barring students from taking mobile phones—including smartwatches equipped with call functions—into classrooms. In 2024, Guangzhou issued targeted regulations granting primary and secondary schools the right to implement full campus bans on student mobile phones, while Zhengzhou unveiled stringent restrictions in the same year to limit students’ access to smartphones and other smart gadgets at school.
These local policy adjustments are backed by unified national educational guidelines. Back in 2021, China’s Ministry of Education released a clear stipulation that primary and secondary school students should not bring personal mobile phones to school in principle. The ministry also banned schools from assigning homework that requires students to rely on mobile devices for completion.
The national regulatory stance was further tightened in 2025. The Ministry of Education issued an updated appeal for a total ban on mobile phones and other electronic devices in all classrooms, and advocated for joint participation from students and parents in offline “screen-free” campaigns on campus.
This nationwide regulatory drive stems from rising public worries about the improper use of smartphones among minors, which has gone far beyond basic communication needs. A typical controversial case occurred in Chongqing earlier this year. A local high school student was found cheating in an exam with a borrowed mobile phone. She had persuaded a food stall vendor near her school to lend her the device, lying that she needed it to complete an online examination.
The exam malpractice was exposed after the phone’s alarm rang three times during the test, drawing the attention of on-site invigilators.
The incident sparked a fierce conflict between the student’s mother and the stall owner. Blaming the vendor for providing the phone that enabled her child’s cheating, the mother insisted on a formal apology. The dispute ended abruptly when the stall vendor knelt down to make a public apology. The school later confirmed that the student had received disciplinary punishment in line with official campus regulations.
While the necessity of legalized campus smartphone bans may differ slightly across regions based on local conditions, a consistent national trend has emerged. Restricting smart devices from classroom environments has evolved into a widely accepted consensus across China’s education sector and society at large.
