This is a “public health issue”. A bill to regulate the use of screens for children under three years old will be tabled this Monday in the National Assembly. Supported by two Les Républicains (LR) deputies, Annie Genevard and Antoine Vermorel-Marques, it aims in particular to prohibit any exposure to tablets, televisions and telephones for children looked after by a childminder or in a crèche.
“We are aimed at early childhood professionals. Those who look after children, either at home, such as childminders, or in nurseries, so that they limit the use of screens in the presence of children and prohibit children's access to screens before the age of three,” explained this Monday Annie Genevard on RMC.
An “increasingly invasive” use
The text proposes that this ban should appear in the list of “approval criteria” issued to professionals and “in the contract which binds childminders to children”, specified the Doubs elected official at franceinfo.
The objective is not to “stigmatize” professionals, but to alert people to a “public health issue”
faced with “the increasingly invasive use of screens”, she added
.
“Screens are harmful to children, particularly from a young age, when many things are being formed that are essential for the future of the young child
,
” she said.
President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out “bans” and “restrictions” on the use of screens by children in January, a few days after bringing together experts on the subject. The Head of State said he wanted “the best scientists (…) to be able to tell us before such an age, it is not reasonable to put a screen in front of a child”.
VIDEO. Macron wants to regulate the use of screens among young children
The effect of children's exposure to screens is debated among specialists. In France, a report from the High Council of Public Health (HCSP), published in January 2020, recommends “proscribing” them before the age of three, “if the conditions for parental interaction are not met”.