Finland to restrict the use of smartphones during the school day

Very good. The Netherlands has been doing this too.

ah yes, why teach kids to use them responsibly when you can just ban them? that always works great
- I feel like "using them responsibly" includes not using them in class
- Because banning them works better.
  If the school wants to teach responsible use, they can provide school-owned phones for use during coursework.
  The problem is that if you have a class of 18 students and all of them are looking at their phones during a lecture or while doing practice problems, it is impossible to police behavior by differentiating who is taking notes and who is texting friends, or who is using a calculator app and who is using Wolfram Alpha. It's much easier to just say "no phones" so the teacher can quickly identify who is taking notes (on paper) or using a calculator (that is a TI 83) versus the students trying to sneakily use their phone under their desk.
  
  Restructuring the education system to not be a day care prison where chidren are desperate to do anything else would work better, but we don't like it when the day care doesn't keep our children locked up while we are at work.
- Can you teach someone to use heroin responsibly? I get what you mean but these devices are addicting af and disrupt focus.
  
  How you use the device is what matters. I use my smartphone to read books for example, and on YouTube I watch a lot of informative content.
  What's addictive is the pre-installed social media apps on our smartphones, that is what needs to be regulated.
  
  but phone is not comparable to heroin. gaming or social media could be addicting. if sugar is addicting, do we ban shops? because shops sell sugary stuff (similar to phone providing the addictive thing)
  
  What a deceitful comparison. Like it or not no one is living without a smartphone these days. Heroin is entirely optional.
- Are you a child/young teen with a completely different brain structure than a mature adult? Do you have already have the media literacy needed to navigate disinfo and toxic content online?
  Kids really are a different species, but have predictable development. For every kid that's responsible enough to have unrestricted device access there's 50 more who just aren't mature enough yet. There's a limit to how much you can coach responsibility into them
  
  Do you have already have the media literacy needed to navigate disinfo and toxic content online?
  I think you get that by navigating disinfo and toxic content online, not by aging or going to school. Look at all the adults who believe everything they see online.
  Personally I'm conflicted about using phones in class. Most kids shouldn't. But there's a rare type, kids like me. I was intelligent (for high school, anyway - I make no claims about being more intelligent than average as an adult lol), social and have ADHD. I went through the textbooks for the quarter in the first week and then it was either hill climb racing and temple run, or chatting to my classmates who needed to pay attention more than I did.
  
  For every 50 kids that's are responsible enough to have unrestricted device access there's 50 one more who just ~~aren't~~ isn't mature enough yet.
  FTFY.

Some US states and local school boards are doing this as well. I believe South Carolina has a law like this going into the upcoming term in August. Students will be allowed to bring devices, but they must be stored during class. One school district is using these little pouches with magnetic locks to which the teachers and admin have the key... so students can keep their devices on their person, but would be unable to access them.
Sadly, one of the more relevant (and understandable) arguments against this trend is parents concerns about being about to get in touch with their child in the event of a school shooting. In active shooter events and lockdowns, many school systems and local governments have been slow to inform parents of the situation... this exacerbates concerns where parents (again, understandably) want to be able to get in touch with their child.
Us Americans live in a hell scape of tragedy and senseless death.

Brazil is also doing this. My wife is a teacher and said that the kids are much less agitated and anxious this year.

This how it has always been here in France, afaik, and when I was in school a decade ago it worked very well. Hopefully still does !

Finland stop being the best Nordic country challenge [Impossible].