Playgrounds Come Alive Again With Brazil School Phone Ban

A student leaves his cellphone at the beginning of the school day at Reverend Martin Luther King public school in Rio de Janeiro (Credit: AFP)

In Rio de Janeiro, children are playing again "like in the old days," and their focus in class has improved after a school cellphone ban pioneered in the city that has now gone national.

Students across the country of more than 200 million people are starting the school year with phones banned from classes and break time after a new law signed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in January.