Can Vietnam curb students' social media addiction by regulating smartphone use at school?

The government has assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to lead the development of a comprehensive scheme to regulate smartphone and social media use at educational institutions, with measures tailored to different school levels.

A notable new aspect of the assignment is that it goes beyond managing physical devices on school premises to cover students' social media behavior, linking the issue to efforts to build school culture and prevent school violence.

For six years, the regulation allowing students to use phones during lessons for learning purposes with teachers' permission has been a source of controversy.

In practice, many schools have introduced stricter measures, including collecting students' phones at the beginning of the school day.

Now that the issue is being addressed through a comprehensive scheme covering social media use as well, the debate over whether students should be allowed to use smartphones at school has resurfaced.

Concerns over students' smartphone use at school

A homeroom teacher at a middle school in central Ho Chi Minh City told Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper on Monday that smartphones in students' schoolbags had become a hidden 'nightmare.'

Her school does not impose an outright ban. Its students are allowed to bring phones but they can only use the devices during technology-integrated lessons when requested by subject teachers.

"Some students still secretly hide their phones under their tables to text or scroll through TikTok. They sit in class, but their minds are completely absorbed in social media," she said.

"On top of that, many disputes in cyberspace have turned into real-life fights immediately after school."

The teacher said the school had tried various measures, from classroom reminders and notifying parents to confiscating phones for a week, but students continued to violate the rules.

From a parent's perspective, Vo Van Lai, whose child attends Nguyen Thi Minh Khai High School in Ho Chi Minh City, also supports tighter controls on students' phone use.

"High school students may be better than middle school students at controlling their social media use. However, I think parents would support schools collecting phones at the beginning of the school day and returning them when classes end," Lan said.

"Students should focus on lessons and interact with teachers and classmates rather than burying their faces in screens."

Trinh Hoang Quan, principal of Vo Thi Sau High School in Ho Chi Minh City, said changes to the school's phone management policy had brought clear improvements in the previous school year and the 2026-27 academic year, during which the school managed more than 2,500 students.

Last school year, students were allowed to bring phones into classrooms for learning purposes.

However, many secretly used them during lessons. Despite repeated reminders from teachers, the school was unable to confiscate the devices.

This school year, the school has installed separate phone lockers for each class. If a lesson requires phones, subject teachers notify students in advance so they can retrieve their devices and return them to the lockers afterward.

"Teachers say this approach has been very effective. Students are more focused, pay greater attention to lessons and participate more fully in learning activities,"Quan said.

"Therefore, the government's requirement to develop a scheme with specific measures for each school level is both timely and appropriate."

Elementary and middle schools should minimize phone use, or even prohibit students from bringing devices onto campus, while high schools could adopt more flexible rules with appropriate technical safeguards, he suggested.

"The biggest challenge is that schools can only manage students during the eight hours they spend in class. Once they return home, social media is beyond the school's control," he said.

Digital resilience education is key

Meanwhile, many students and education experts are concerned that an outright ban could slow digital transformation and limit students' initiative in learning.

Nguyen Thi Xuan Thanh, a 10th-grade student at Marie Curie High School, acknowledged that some classmates brought phones to school but failed to concentrate during lessons.

However, she said smartphones remained essential learning tools for high school students.

"With a phone, I can look up materials more quickly, work on group assignments and scan QR codes to access study materials from teachers," Thanh said.

"I hope teachers and parents will guide us in using social media responsibly and understanding our own responsibilities rather than simply banning phones."

Education expert Nguyen Thi Ngoc Nga shared this view, saying that separating students from smart devices was unrealistic in the age of artificial intelligence.

"If teachers and schools choose the easiest solution of collecting phones and imposing bans, students will lose an environment in which to practice safe digital skills. They may react negatively or overuse their phones on days off or when they enter higher education," she said.

Nga said she had encountered students who attended school throughout the week but barely interacted with their families on Saturdays and Sundays because they spent so much time on their phones to make up for the days when they were busy studying.

Managing phone use in classrooms only addresses the surface of the problem, while social media remains the core issue, Nga added.

Schools cannot monitor students' online activities at home on their own. Instead, a three-way coordination mechanism involving families, schools and digital platform providers is needed.