More than half of countries worldwide have banned mobile phones in schools, according to UNESCO, amid concerns over declining attention, cyberbullying and mental health. The report highlights rising social media risks, especially for girls, and notes a rapid global shift toward stricter rules or regulations on phone use in classrooms.

New Delhi: More than half of the countries have banned phones in schools amid mounting concerns about declining attention in classrooms and cyberbullying, according to the UNSECO's Global Education Monitoring (GEM) team.

The team found that girls are twice as likely as boys to suffer from eating disorders exacerbated by social media usage.

Facebook's own research revealed that 32 per cent of teenage girls felt worse about their bodies after using Instagram.

The report noted alarming trends related to TikTok's algorithm, which targets teenagers with body image content every 39 seconds and promotes content related to eating disorders every eight minutes.