In this apartment in the northern districts of Marseille, there are eight telephones, two tablets, two game consoles, three computers and as many televisions. The sound is loud and the children captivated. “It’s like that all the time”, observes, disillusioned, Diazmati, the mother. “Now the children only live on the screen and that, since confinement.”
Crisis of Covid-19 has indeed accelerated the growth of time spent in front of screens, reveals an Ipsos study published by the National Union of Family Associations (UNAF), Monday, February 7.
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Rachid, 6, spends a good part of his day on the tablet, while his brother Rujdi, 8, plays Fortnite on his console.“I always wanted to be the richest in Fortnite“, laughs the little boy who explains to us that his first thing in the morning is to watch Youtube. When asked if he prefers to play outside or use his tablet, Rujdi replies without hesitation: “I prefer to play in tablet screens”.
>> Covid-19: more than half of children have increased their screen consumption since the health crisis, according to a study
The mother took time to understand the negative effects of all this virtual content until learning disabilities were detected in her youngest son, Rachid. “From his one year and up to his three years, always the phone, the phone. We noticed, before he entered school, that he was always like that, looking right and left”, says Diazmati.
From now on, this mother is trying to reduce the time spent in front of the screens, sometimes even confiscating the telephones or the game consoles, even if it means causing a few small crises. “Crises have to pass. I have to show that I’m the boss.”
Parents have a major role to play, but for Yves Marry, co-founder and general delegate of “Look up!“, an association that fights against the effects of overexposure to screens, the public authorities should get more involved. A bill is also being drafted but “for now, there is nothing since it is in the drafting stage, regrets Yves Marry. We just know the ideas that are suggested. For example, displaying messages to say that there is harm from screens under three years old”.
The association offers another prevention message, the “5, 10, 15″ : “No screen for five years, no more than an hour for 10 years and no smartphone for 15 years. It may seem radical to many people, recognizes Yves Marry. But we start from the observation that when young children have smartphones in their hands, they are systematically exposed to content that shocks them, that traumatizes them. “Look up!” will submit its proposals to the candidates for the presidential election in March, during the Assises de l’attention.