In April 2025, the Itinere network of private schools, which includes eight schools in the Buenos Aires suburbs, made a drastic decision: ban cellphones throughout secondary school, even during recess. The measure, added to the existing restriction in primary school, aimed to combat the mental health crisis affecting adolescents. But a year later, the numbers show a frightening reality: kids’ screen time hasn’t dropped a single second.
The network’s authorities, far from being satisfied with the perception that children were playing again during recess, decided to measure with concrete data. And what they found was a cold shower. According to the survey conducted in 2026 on 654 secondary school students from six schools, students spend between 5 and 5 hours and 45 minutes per day glued to their cellphones. The figure has remained virtually unchanged since 2023, when they started measuring. “That’s 73 days a year, 21.6% of the day,” the researchers state in the report.
“If kids don’t use their cellphones at school, how is it possible that the time is the same?” experts ask. The answer is as obvious as it is alarming: they steal hours from sleep and other activities. “They gain time outside of school, they take time away from sleep at night,” explains neuroscientist Alejo Barbuzza, part of the team led by Dr. Fabricio Ballarini from Conicet and ITBA.
The data was obtained from the students’ own smartphones, with family authorization. Over the last two weeks, the kids showed their screen time reports. Many were shocked to see they spent seven, eight, or even nine hours daily. “They grab their heads, they can’t believe it,” Barbuzza says. There were even cases of 12 and 13 hours, though they are a minority.
The most used apps, for the fourth consecutive year, are TikTok (52%), Instagram (19%), and WhatsApp (13%). The outlook is bleak: kids arrive poorly rested, in a bad mood, and the habit hasn’t changed. “The data kills the narrative,” said Darío Álvarez Klar, general director of the Itinere Network. “It’s not enough to limit use at school. The habit hasn’t changed. School and family are two legs of the same table, and we always expect the other to set the limit,” he added.
The executive was blunt: “We must not demonize technology, but what’s wrong is the amount of consumption. In younger children, the consequences are not immediately visible: you see them reactive, angry, anxious.” The research also linked excessive screen time to mental health issues, although the details are chilling. The lingering question is: how do you break this vicious cycle when parents also look the other way?
Para mí esto huele a curro de los progres de siempre. Prohiben los celus en el cole y los pibes se clavan 5 horas de noche. Así nos va, con una juventud zombie que ni estudia ni labura. Los libertarios tenemos razón: necesitan orden, no zurdos de mierda.
para mi es tremendo los pibes miran 6 horas pantalla y los gorilas del sistema les echan la culpa a ellos JA el capitalismo les vende la distraccion y despues los castigan no reducen nada solo lo empujan a la noche unos genios la solucion es educar no prohibir basta de hipocresia