A public consultation was launched on Friday on a draft decree which will require manufacturers of smartphones, computers or other connected devices to equip them with a device allowing parental control, said Renaissance deputy for Bas-Rhin Bruno Studer at franceinfo on Saturday September 3, while minors are exposed to increasingly young pornographic and/or violent content on the internet.
The deputy is at the origin of the Studer law which provides for this control and which was adopted in March 2022. It provides that “terminal equipment intended for the use of online public communication services giving access to services and content likely to harm the physical, mental or moral development of minors is equipped with an easily accessible and understandable device allowing their users to restrict or control the access of such persons to such services and content”.
Secretary of State for Children Charlotte Caubel received stakeholders at Bercy on Friday September 2, namely several child protection associations, such as the Observatory of Parenthood and Digital Education, the National Union of Family Associations, the National Federation of Schools, Parents and Educators and the e-Enfance Association, but also the manufacturer Samsung France and representatives of operating systems from Google and Apple.
Also taking part in this meeting were officials from the French Federation of Telecoms and Free Commerce, the syndicate of leisure software publishers and several representatives of merchants, such as the Alliance française des industries du numérique, the syndicate of international trade companies of audio, video and computer equipment and the Federation of e-commerce and distance selling.
The draft decree has been given to them and they now have one month to submit their comments. The decree will be amended accordingly. If a formal decree implementing the Studer law will appear in 2022, Bruno Studer believes that the technical decree which obliges manufacturers will be published in the Official Journal at the beginning of 2023, after having passed several stages of validation by the Council. of State, the Cnil and after having been notified to the European Commission.
But, even if it appears in a few months, this decree will take some time to be applied, because manufacturers need time to change their manufacturing processes for connected devices in order to allow parents to easily set up parental controls. on their children’s smartphones and computers, warns the elected Renaissance.