Schools in Solingen: What’s the purpose of a social media ban? | EUROtoday

As of: February 23, 2026 • 2:37 p.m

Social media bans for youngsters and younger individuals are being mentioned around the globe. In Solingen, fifth graders are already giving up social media all through the town. The steadiness on the faculties: constructive.

“The children are talking and playing with each other again,” says Andreas Tempel, head of the Alexander Coppel Comprehensive School in Solingen. His faculty can be a part of the citywide social media ban. “In the schoolyard people are really interacting again, which wasn’t the case before with cell phones. They just sat in the corners hunched over their cell phones.”

The complete faculty drew up a contract of intent with the dad and mom and examined the ban in opposition to infinite scrolling and fixed distraction. Around 1,400 college students from all fifth grades in Solingen are collaborating along with their dad and mom: No extra social media for fifth graders in school and at residence. “There was bullying among each other on social media in very unpleasant situations. We have to protect the children from what they can see. They are far too young for something like that,” says Tempel.

Ban works properly

There are 162 kids within the fifth grade at his faculty, and the ban labored very properly for everybody. “This happened very quietly for us. It’s important that the parents also take part. This shouldn’t stop when the children go home.”

No TikTok, no Instagram, no Snapchat. His hope is that in a couple of years they are going to be a faculty with out cell telephones and social media. “Children come to school on Monday and are exhausted and completely exhausted because they were on their cell phones too much over the weekend – especially on social networks.” That is problematic.

“Psychic well being epidemic”

Markus Surrey has been working as a faculty psychologist in Solingen for ten years and helps the mission within the metropolis. In his session with kids and younger individuals, he experiences that social media places a pressure on kids and makes them dependent.

The psychologist speaks of a psychological well being epidemic: “Anxiety disorders and depression have increased rapidly. We have experienced that here in Solingen. The unreflective use of social media is dangerous. Students have told me about their addiction to constantly checking their cell phones.”

His evaluation of the ban is constructive: college students are considerably happier and the schoolyards are livelier once more. All twelve secondary faculties in Solingen are collaborating within the mission. Abstinence will turn into the brand new regular with out aggressive conditions and the sensation of changing into an outsider. According to the psychologist, a neighborhood ban is the appropriate means.

It is tough for particular person dad and mom to limit their kids’s smartphone or social media use. “We have to tackle this collectively as a society. If ten or twenty parents in a class say: My child doesn’t get a smartphone in the 5th grade, then the child doesn’t become an outsider. It works together. That way they can always point to the 19 others who don’t have a smartphone either,” says Markus Surrey.

Political debate too late?

The psychologist criticizes that the present political debate about social media bans is relatively late. “I would have liked to have had a debate about bans two years ago.” At the CDU federal celebration convention in Stuttgart over the weekend, the delegates voted by a transparent majority in favor of a authorized age restrict of 14 years for the usage of social networks. The SPD can be pushing for fast motion.

SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf is asking on the coalition to handle the problem “quickly”. “We finally need clear rules on the digital platforms. Algorithms that increase addiction, hatred and bullying represent a massive problem for our entire society and can particularly endanger children and young people and make them sick,” says Klüssendorf.

An common of 231 minutes on the cellular phone

According to the present JIM research by the Southwest Media Education Research Association, virtually all younger individuals between the ages of 12 and 19 have their very own cellular phone. Two thirds of these surveyed stated they typically spend extra time on their smartphone than they really deliberate. On common, they spend round 231 minutes on their gadget day-after-day. As a consequence, they’re typically drained within the morning as a result of they spent too lengthy on their cell telephones within the night.

Andreas Tempel from Solingen is happy in regards to the political debate: “The issue is also being taken up by politicians in a big way. The SPD and CDU are discussing a ban. I believe that they are going in the direction of what we are already setting an example on a small scale in Solingen,” says the headmaster.

Student council in opposition to ban

Anastasia Pick represents the scholars in North Rhine-Westphalia. At the second, the 13-year-old is fasting on social media voluntarily and rejects a ban. “These days, not everything happens through newspapers, letters or emails,” she says. “You mainly only do this via social media, via Snapchat and TikTok. There are chats with which you can write to each other.” Social media has turn into too essential for younger individuals’s lives to easily ban it. Instead, kids needs to be skilled in the best way to use it accurately.

The ban in fifth grades is setting a precedent at faculties in Solingen. “Other years and classes in our company have also prescribed this for themselves and want to take part,” says headmaster Tempel. “The rest of Germany could learn from us how well and quietly it works if we initiate the experiment together and justify it well.”

Ban as a primary step

For psychologist Markus Surrey from Solingen, the ban is a primary wise step to assist the kids. But additionally it is essential to replicate many times and speak to the younger individuals about their growth and their emotions. “From a certain age, it’s more about young people’s own motivation and finding mechanisms to regulate themselves,” says faculty psychologist Surrey.

He additionally addresses dad and mom, who typically have problematic utilization conduct themselves. He places it this manner: “We have addicted children with addicted parents who use the media problematically: When children report to me that their father is not available at the dinner table and is staring at his cell phone.” He want to see an sincere dialogue about how we are able to all take care of the digital world in a more healthy means.