(12 Sep 2025)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santiago, Chile – 08 September 2025
1. Students playing sports in yard at Bicentenario School
2. Various of students entering school and putting their phones on isolation bags
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Humberto Garrido, Principal of Bicentenario School:
++PARTIALLY COVERED BY SHOT 2 AND 4++
“For the moment, I can tell you that there are results. After a month and a half, we have more focused students. There are no cell phones in the classroom. They have their devices, they are already used to handing them in, putting them away."
4. Students playing basketball
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Felipe Alessandri, Mayor of Lo Barnechea County:
++PARTLY COVERED BY SHOTS 6 AND 7++
“Because of the pandemic, so that they could continue their education, smartphone use became widespread. They are constantly hyperconnected, receiving stimuli that are not always appropriate for their age. And I think they realized that they were no longer interacting."
6. Shadows of students
7. Students playing ping pong
8. Students practicing dance in school yard
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santiago, Chile – 09 September 2025
++VIDEOCALL INTERVIEW++
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Carolina Pérez, educator and author of the book ‘Secuestrados por las pantallas (Kidnapped by the screens)’:
++PARTLY COVERED BY SHOTS 8 AND 10++
“It must be clear that these devices have been designed to be addictive, and the sooner I start, the longer I will have my customer captive for life. So, all the scientific evidence says that for a smartphone to be used healthily, it has to be from the age of 16 onwards.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santiago, Chile – 08 September 2025
10. Various of students leaving school and unlocking phone bags
STORYLINE:
Volleyball, basketball, ping pong, dancing rehearsals or simple chats.
Dozens of teens are rediscovering how to reconnect to the real world after a school in Santiago, Chile, implemented a pioneering program in the country that blocks cell phones signals.
Now, instead of compulsively scrolling through their Instagram feeds or sharing choreographed TikTok dances, students spend time at the library, the café or along the several courts of Lo Barnechea Bicentenario school, located in the wealthy district of Lo Barnechea in northern Santiago.
On a recent cold, sunny day at the end of winter in Chile, dozens of students patiently lined up before putting their smartphones inside a black case designed to jam signal detection through a blocking magnet that only can be deactivated by the school’s inspectors.
They are still able to keep their devices, but are only allowed to text, call or scroll again after school is over.
"After a month and a half, we have more focused students.” the school’s principal, Humberto Garrido, told The Associated Press.
The program — the first ever put in place in Chile and one of the first in South America — was implemented last month, a bid by the Lo Barnechea mayor’s office to address student well-being in times of hyperconnectivity and to help them rediscover real-world connections.
For now, the initiative is being tested only at Lo Barnechea Bicentenario school and applies to eighth-grade students, ages 13 or 14.
However, the measure will soon be extended to all grades and gradually implemented in other district schools over the next year.
The first few days of the digital detox demanded some adaptation, but just a few weeks after its launch, the program has been well received by students, teachers and parents.
AP Video shot by Mauricio Cuevas
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