The debate about children’s addiction to digital technology and what can be done about it is gaining ground in France, while at EU level there is clamor to regulate addictive design.
French Minister Delegate for Youth Sarah El Khairy and French Secretary of State for Digital Technology Marina Ferrari launched a new initiative on Thursday (28 March) called ‘P@rents, let’s talk about digital’.
Announced in the newspaper The Parisian by El Haïry, the initiative will organize free workshops across the country for parents discussing all topics related to children’s use of digital technology.
The workshop initiative follows an earlier pledge by French President Emmanuel Macron: “We will define the correct use of the screen for our children, in our families, at home as well as in the classroom, because it affects the future of our societies and our democracies.” he said at his second press conference since his election on January 16.
On January 10, Macron created a new Screen Commission to present the recommendations of experts on the rules to be introduced. The ten members of the committee were expected to submit their report by the end of March, but it has not yet been published.
The screen commission is chaired by Amine Benyamina, a psychiatrist specializing in the study of addiction, and Servan Mouton, a neuroscientist specializing in the study of psychopathology.
Protection of consumers and children from the harms of digital technologies is also gaining momentum at EU level.
In December 2023, the European Parliament adopted an initiative report that highlighted “the significant impact of addictive design on all people, but especially on children and adolescents”.
Dutch Green Member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for the report Kim van Sparentak said at a Mozilla Mornings event in mid-March that he would look at regulating addictive designs and online harm to EU citizens in the next parliamentary term (2024-2029 ).
Legislation on screen addiction
A bill was introduced in the French National Assembly in January 2023 by representatives Caroline Janvier and Aurore Bergé (Renaissance, Renew) to prevent excessive exposure of children to screens. Unfortunately, the bill did not receive enough support and failed to pass the adoption stage.
The proposed bill targets screen addiction in children under six and seeks to train health professionals on how to treat it. It also contains numerous prevention and education policies, including a digital information platform for parents.
Although the bill never took off, the digital information platform was released by the digital minister on Thursday (March 28). Ferrari used the event as a platform to influence the debate.
In particular, she reiterated on French TV channel FranceInfo the same day that she did not support former education minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem’s proposal to restrict the internet as a way to counter the harms of digital technology.
Vallaud-Belkacem proposed in a publication in Le Figaro on March 18 that a limited number of gigabytes be allocated for daily use.
She wrote, “Scarcity leads to a certain wisdom.” The implication is that people will spend less time posting hate speech, watching less pornographic content or creating fake news when their access to the Internet is limited.
“No ministerial campaign can prevent a teenager from having his internet existence ruined,” Vallo-Belkacem added.
Hackers Against Minors
Cyber security concerns make things more complicated.
Since March 21, almost every day there have been reports of hacked French educational institutions.
France’s Ministry of Education reported on March 25 that 130 of them had been targeted by cyberattacks. Hackers sent threats of terror attacks to schoolchildren via email, including a video of a beheading.
As a preventative measure, the student messaging feature was closed as ordered by Education Minister Nicole Belube on March 28, until the hack and the level of vulnerability are resolved.
[Edited by Rajnish Singh]
