Norway will ban the use of generative AI tools in elementary schools from the start of the next academic year in late August, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced on June 19, as concern grows across Europe that screen-based learning has failed to deliver on its educational promises.
Under the new rules, pupils from first through seventh grade, aged 6 to 13, should as a general rule not use AI tools at all. Students in lower secondary school, aged 14 to 16, may use AI cautiously under teacher supervision. Upper secondary students, aged 17 to 19, should learn to use AI appropriately so they are prepared for higher education and the workforce.
“Using AI increases the risk that young children skip important steps in their education,” Støre told a press conference in Oslo. “The most important thing in school is that our children learn to read, write and do mathematics.”
The AI ban is the latest step in a wider Norwegian reassessment of technology in education. The government banned smartphones from schools in 2024, facing a broad decline in standardized test scores. In April 2026, it announced plans to prohibit children from using social media until they turn 16, following Australia’s pioneering approach to age-based platform restrictions.
The government also said it will propose legislation to fund the increased use of physical books in classrooms, explicitly reversing a decades-long trend toward computer tablets that began with the iPad’s introduction to Norwegian schools after 2010.
The move positions Norway as one of the most restrictive European countries when it comes to children’s use of digital technology in education, at a time when other nations are grappling with the same question: whether AI tools in classrooms enhance learning or accelerate a decline in foundational skills.
Sources: Norway imposes near ban on AI in elementary school (Reuters, June 19, 2026).