first cell phone, registration on social networks… What does the report published this Tuesday recommend?

The report on the recommendations to be taken in the face of the overexposure of young French people to screens is submitted this Tuesday to Emmanuel Macron. While reports of harassment between teenagers on social networks are increasing, ten experts have looked at solutions to protect children. First laptop, registrations on social networks… The measures are numerous.

The report is awaited by the government, but also by the educational community and parents. This Tuesday, a commission of ten experts, mandated by Emmanuel Macron last January, published this morning a report to better regulate the use of screens among young people, both at home and in class. In this report, revealed Monday evening by several regional dailies, the specially commissioned expert commission warns of “the reality of the hyper connection suffered by children” and “the consequences for their health, their development, their future”, but also for the future “of our society, our civilization”.

The commission explains that it was “shocked” by “the strategies for capturing children’s attention”. “A very clear consensus has emerged on the negative effects, direct and indirect, of screens”, notably on sleep, a sedentary lifestyle – which promotes obesity – or even myopia”, she writes in this report, cited in The voice of the North.

Avoid addictive social networks

Social networks, smartphones, tablets: how to avoid them? This is the whole purpose of the recommendations of these doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, associative and industrial players. First recommendation, known to almost everyone, but which we must never stop reminding: no screen use before three years of age, because the effects on the brain are much more devastating in very young children.

For the first phone, experts agree that you should wait until the age of 11. They even recommend that parents buy a laptop without internet at school. They also recommend avoiding social networks before the age of 15, and once this age is reached, moving towards so-called ethical platforms, such as Bluesky. Finally, there is no question of going on SnapChat or TikTok before turning 18, they emphasize.

Middle and high schools without cell phones

The members of the commission also note that it is necessary to combat the algorithms of these two social networks, which promote addiction. And if waiting for the majority to go there is undoubtedly wishful thinking, it can be helped by a framework other than that of parents, established this time at school, where screens must be limited. For the rapporteurs, all types of digital tools must be removed from nursery schools and telephones must be banned within the school premises.

Because if the ban is already in place on paper, in reality, it is not always respected everywhere. Finally, the report wants to go further and calls for testing of high schools without cell phones.