The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, during his press conference on January 16, said he wanted to regulate the use of screens by young children. A welcome but late realization. Indeed, adopted on January 18, 2022, two years ago, a law already aimed at this objective, requiring smartphone manufacturers to offer parents control tools. But the implementation of software making it possible to limit the time spent in front of screens had not been made obligatory by this text, the ambition of which was largely revised downwards compared to the initial requests.
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The average time in front of screens now exceeds twenty-four hours per week for 7-12 year olds (up 20% compared to 2016) and thirty-six hours on average for 13-19 year olds, more than the legal working time for adults. The impact on young people of this snacking on the screens of waking time is proven, as the President of the Republic underlined. The High Council of Public Health has warned of the resulting lack of sleep and physical activity, on the consequences in terms of weight, emotional stability and general well-being, with a demonstrated increase in cases of anxiety and depression.
A naive calculation shows the scale of the problem. When you add nine theoretical hours of sleep, eight hours of class and five hours of screen time, there are only two hours left over twenty-four hours for everything else: eating meals, washing and taking care of your child. yourself, move around or even communicate with loved ones without the intermediary of a smartphone. The question sows discord in many families. Many parents feel helpless, because the use of screens is a question of social inclusion for children and adolescents.
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Should we come to radical measures, Chinese style? There, children are now prohibited from playing video games for more than three hours a week. Children under 8 years old are not allowed more than forty minutes of Internet per day, and, beyond this age, they must stick to one hour per day. This access is completely blocked from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Drastic restrictions easily applicable thanks to “youth” settings activated by default by companies manufacturing video games or social media.
Find the right tool
Even if this type of authoritarian policy seems unimaginable in France, it gives food for thought. The law passed in France in 2022 provides for default control of children’s access to certain applications, without parents having to do anything. But the tools for controlling time spent in front of screens that we are talking about today were not put in place this way, by default. Parents must find the right tool in the midst of a plethora of offers, free or not, and understand both how to install it and how to use it. Less than half of the parents concerned say they have managed to put this control in place, and even then, their statements on the subject are probably overestimated.
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2024-01-31 05:12:40
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