Mobile phones will be banned in schools to improve student performance, New Zealand’s new Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says. Education Minister Erica Stanford said current indicators revealed more than half of 15-year-olds in New Zealand did not meet basic literacy and numeracy standards.

An international group of leading health experts has announced its support for a new international declaration aimed at raising public awareness of children’s basic rights, such as not being exposed to addictive platforms, dangerous radiation from wireless devices and commercial misuse of private information.

The groundbreaking report identified social media platforms as undermining classroom learning, driving up costs for school systems, and being a “root cause” of the nationwide youth mental health crisis.