The ban on cell phones in the classroom through law 15.100/2025: a critical analysis

Abstract

The relationship between education and digital information and communication technologies has attracted the attention of several fields of study. In the field of language studies, some believe that the presence of these technologies, especially cell phones, represents an obstacle to the achievement of quality education. On the other hand, there are those who argue that schools have a duty to ensure a comprehensive education, capable of enabling access to the most diverse types of literacy – including digital literacy. Given this impasse, which has been further exacerbated by the recent Law 15.100/2025, the objective of this article is to problematize the statements that constitute this norm. To this end, we start from a theoretical and methodological approach centered on Indisciplinary Applied Linguistics (Moita Lopes, 2006), through which different knowledge converges: Studies on Literacy (Kleiman, 1995), Digital Literacy (Coscarelli, 2011; Ribeiro, 2008) and Legal Science (Nader, 2022; Fernandes, 2024; Kelsen, 1998; Reale, 1994). Thus, despite the authoritative nature of the rule being a positive aspect, especially in terms of coordination between entities (federal, state and municipal), it presents some points that should be analyzed carefully, among which the following stands out: the problem is not the cell phone! The presence of digital technologies in schools is a global reality that the institution cannot avoid. This is because, in addition to the need for digital literacy, the school is not an Olympus removed from the concrete world; on the contrary, it exists due to permanent and dialogical contact with this world.