The committee of experts recommends a ban on screens for children under three years old or the use of mobile phones without internet from the age of eleven only.
Gathered by Emmanuel Macron at the end of January, the commission of experts responsible for drafting a report on the use of screens among children submitted its conclusions to the president on Tuesday April 30. In this document of approximately 140 pages, entitled “In search of lost time”, the ten members of the college of specialists are concerned about the consequences of overexposure to screens in terms of health and development for children.
“There is a very clear consensus on the negative effects, direct and indirect, of screens on sleep, on a sedentary lifestyle, lack of physical activity and the risks of overweight, even obesity (with a cascade of pathologies that result) as well as on sight.”
The expert commissionin his report
“We are pragmatic: we have data, we recommend bans”explained Amine Benyamina, the psychiatrist who co-chaired the commission with neurologist Servane Mouton, on RTL. “There is always time to change practices when we have the information to adjust them”continues the latter.
Fight against addictive services
This is the first axis of the report and behind opaque jargon, it targets very specific practices. The report proposes to “strongly attack the addictive and confining designs of certain digital services, to ban them and give children and adolescents their freedom”. In the viewfinder, the “predatory services” which use all means to retain users as long as possible: infinite scrolling, automatic video launch, intensive notifications, rewards…
Another concern of the commission is online games and the development of micro-transactions: experts call for regulating and capping spending for a given game. To do this, they choose to contact “to economic actors” firstly and to go further in this area than the European Digital Service Act. With the drug system as a model, the commission is considering the possibility “to require economic actors to demonstrate, before placing on the market, the absence of harmful effects and a favorable benefit-risk balance”with the carrying out of regular independent audits.
Experts also recommend encouraging the emergence of innovations “in the service of ethical models”. The report further envisages the creation of a “right to configuration” which would result in concrete specifications: “systematic opening on the settings interface before any first navigation”, “explanation accessible to children of how algorithms work” or “default setting” more protective of minors.
Prevent exposure of the little ones
In its report, extracts of which were made public on Monday evening by several regional dailies, the commission recommends “reinforce the current recommendation not to expose children under 3 to screens”. “The screen is not necessary for the good development of the child”notes neurologist Servane Mouton.
The commission also calls for actions with parents and early childhood professionals. The effects “attached to the intervention of screens in the young child’s relationship with adults constitute sufficient support points to call for great vigilance, at least until the child is 4 years old, in the use that is made tools in their presence”. The report cites childminders, nursery staff and nannies and highlights the importance of “key moments of the relationship” what are meals, care or games.
“Let’s put the digital tool in its place: until at least six years old, the child does not need a screen to develop”, insisted Servane Mouton, in front of the press at the Elysée. “So, what do we do? We have to relearn parents how to play with their children”she added. “The child needs interactions, to be outside, to play with his peers, to sing, dance, run… The screen must not overwhelm these needs.”
Ban cell phones for preteens
Concerning mobile phones, the commission recommends “to assume and organize” progressive use of screens and digital technology depending on the age of the children. She therefore recommends not giving a cell phone to children under 11 years old, then authorizing it via a device without internet up to 13 years old. But how ? Via “the systematic declaration of the user’s date of birth when purchasing a smartphone and subscribing to a mobile phone plan” or by adding a notice to smartphones purchased in France “not suitable for under 13s”.
From this age, the authors of the report propose authorizing access to the internet, but not to social networks, then opening this access from the age of 15, only on social networks. “ethical”. Amine Benyamina defines these social networks as platforms which have no vocation “to lead to eternal recommitment” of its users and “which do not disseminate offensive or traumatic content”. This use of mobile phones must be accompanied by the development of an offer designed for adolescents. The commission recommends in particular the marketing by operators of suitable packages and telephones.
Supervising the use of screens in schooling
The approach “progressive” defended in the report “must be used within the school framework”. Therefore, the commission recommends “no longer use ENT for primary school children” in order to reserve these digital spaces for exchanges between teachers and parents of students. Regarding secondary school students, experts consider it necessary to “fight against all practices unfavorable to children, in the use of ENT and Pronote” and suggest, for example, deactivating notifications between 7 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. the next morning.
The commission also highlights the existence of a “paradoxical injunction which leads young students to spend time on ENTs or to consult them at odd hours while, at the same time, they are asked to moderate their use of screens”. More broadly, she suggests“initiate a precise inventory of the place of digital technology in the current pedagogical and educational strategy” and to carry out “systematic impact studies” of each digital resource before generalizing it.
Educate on health issues related to screens
Among the issues raised by the commission, education on health issues finds a place in the report in the form of suggestions directly addressed to the government. It specifically targets risks for sleep, sedentary lifestyle and eyesight. The report therefore encourages policy makers to “design a plan in favor of health education for children and young people taking particular account” these issues.
The education section of the report also includes the need to fight “against messages and certain harmful trends”notably the “violent, hateful, sexist, misleading content, oriented with the aim of manipulation by the person sending it or even of a pornographic nature”. The specialist college also recommends “give serious and comprehensive space to all ‘living together’ education (education about sexual and emotional life, education about gender issues, education about psychosocial skills, civic education, etc.) which are systematically crossed by challenges of amplification in the face of digital technology.
The committee of experts also proposes deploying a communication strategy “massive, recurring, general public” raising awareness of issues related to screens. A complicated approach to implement without relying on said screens.