The president has assembled a commission of experts whose work must be delivered “at the end of March”.
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Emmanuel Macron called for a resumption “control of our screens” and their use by children, Tuesday January 16, making the subject a central element of his remarks on education. “We have left a lot of families without instructions. (…) We need to have a scientific consensus, that scientists begin to give us a plan and that we inform a public debate, which will come next” , he declared during his press conference at the Elysée.
The president convened a commission of experts last week, whose work must be reported “end of March”. Based on their recommendations, “there may be bans, there may be restrictions” And “may also be restrictions on content”, he said, without specifying in what context.
The head of state said he wanted “the best scientists, (…) both epidemiologists, clinicians, sociologists, all disciplines, can tell us ‘Before such an age, it is not reasonable to put a screen in front of a child'”. As a reminder, the High Council of Public Health recommends prohibiting screens before the age of 3, “if the conditions for parental interaction are not met”.
One hour per day on average from 2 years old
A survey published in April by Public Health France reveals that 2-year-old children spend on average nearly an hour per day in front of a screen. Gabriel Attal, for his part, was recently alarmed that“a child under 6 years old spends on average 830 hours per year in front of a screen”.
The subject of exposure to screens “is very important for the solidity of our democracies, because if we have adolescents and future citizens whose relationship with the truth has been poorly constructed, in any case constructed on social networks where the difference between the truth and the counter -truth was not clear, hello generation of conspiracy theorists”declared Emmanuel Macron again.
He also lambasted again “the very important role of screens” and social networks, in his eyes, in the riots that occurred after the death of young Nahel, killed by a police officer in June. “There was a form of mimicry which led to a completely unreasonable conflagration”according to him.
Emmanuel Macron also recalled the measures implemented since his arrival at the Elysée, such as the ban on cell phones in college or the obligation to install a parental control device on terminals (smartphones, computers, televisions and game consoles) placed on the French market. This system will be activated by default from July 2024, to protect minors in particular against pornographic content distributed on the internet.