France's ex-PM calls ‘state of emergency' over children's screen use

Local France

02-05-2025

The call – from former prime minister and current centrist party leader Gabriel Attal and child psychologist Marcel Rufo – came after French medical experts advised that children under the age of six should not be exposed to screens, including TV, in an
open letter to the government
.
The current recommendation in France is that children under the age of three should not be exposed to screens, and only 'occasional use' between the ages of three and six in the presence of an adult.
Meanwhile, children in nearly 200
collèges
have been involved in a pilot ban on mobile phones, in which the devices – which should be turned off, anyway – are handed in at the start of the school day and returned at the end of it.
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This ban is set to be rolled out nationwide at the start of the new school year in September.
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The use of "a mobile phone or any other electronic communications terminal equipment" has been banned in nurseries,
ecoles primaires
(primary schools) and
collèges
in France since 2018.
The experts' open letter and Attal and Rufo's joint declaration, published in Le Figaro, goes further and demands restrictions on screen use outside school hours, and in the home.
'If we do nothing, screens and their content will slowly kill our youth and, ultimately, our entire society,' warn Attal and Rufo, exactly a year after a report produced by experts commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron expressed concern about the consequences of overexposure to screens on children's health and development.
The commission also recommended a ban on screen use for children under three and said that mobile phones for children aged from 11 should not have internet access.
Attal and Rufo, however, propose creating an 'assessment interview' for screen addiction for children aged 11 as they head into their
collège
years – and again at age 15, for students going to
lycée
after completing their brevet exams.
They also suggested that age limits on social media sites, similar to those imposed on adult content, could be introduced to prohibit access to social networks by those under 15, while a 'digital curfew' should prevent access to networks between 10pm and 8am for anyone aged between 15 and 18.
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They added that social network sites should 'go black-and-white' after 30 minutes of use, to reduce their attractiveness, and that access should be restricted to one hour for anyone under the age of 18.
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'Even China does it with TikTok,' Attal and Rufo argued, 'for once, let's take inspiration from what this country is doing!'
And they also suggested that apps and platforms should come with a readily available 'addict-score' rating, inspired by on the
Nutri-Score
model – and propose that two percent of revenue generated by platforms' activity in France go to funding mental health research and care.
A commission of inquiry into the psychological effects of social media site TikTok on minors has been launched in the Assembly.