FG Moves To Ban Children Under 11 – 15 From Using Smart Phones, Social Media, Others
French President, Emmanuel Macron has declared his support for the proposed legislation that would ban children under the age of 11 from having smartphones and those under 15 from using social media.
It was gathered that the proposed ban was disclosed in a report published earlier this year by a panel of experts commissioned by the Elysee Palace amid growing concern over the negative effects of tech and social media use on children and teenagers.
Daily Mails reports that Macron entered the issue into his presidential agenda at the beginning of the year.
However there is no word on how such the proposed ban would be implemented in the country.
It was learnt further that the country’s lawmakers now set to decide which apps will qualify for the ban and to hash out the finer details of bringing the recommended measures to bear.
The expert panel, which was led by neurologist Servane Mouton and psychiatry professor Amine Benyamina, and also included education, law and tech experts, delivered its findings to Macron in April.
It recommended that all children under the age of 11 must not be permitted to use a smartphone, and must not be given a smartphone with access to the internet before age 13.
Social media apps should be forbidden for anyone under 15, they added, and minors over 15 should only have access to platforms deemed ‘ethical’ – though the report did not specify which platforms would be excluded from such restrictions.
There is currently no timeline for new legislation and it is unclear to what extent it would follow the experts’ recommendations.
The group said any future moves should focus on tightening rules for tech companies.
“Those are the ones who are primarily responsible,” Mouton told a news briefing back in April.
The way in which such a ban would be implemented remains unclear, with commentators divided on whether app makers and tech companies would be compelled to build in age restrictions into their applications, or whether parents would bear responsibility for enforcing the ban at home.
Some tools for limiting screentime and runtime on social media applications are already built into most smartphones, but these limits can be changed by the user at any time.
This has sparked questions over whether the French government will seek to introduce legislation obligating tech comp.
