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Children under the age of six should not be exposed to screens, including television, to avoid permanent damage to their brain development, French medical experts have said.
Television, tablets, computers, video games and smartphones “ have already had a serious impact on a new generation sacrificed on the altar of ignorance ”, according to an open letter to the government from five major health bodies – the associations of paediatrics, public health, ophthalmology, child and adolescent psychiatry, and health and the environment.
Calling for an urgent review of public policies to protect future generations, they said: "Screens in any form do not meet the needs of children. Worse still, they hinder and alter brain development", causing "a lasting change in their health and intellectual capacities".
Current recommendations in France are that children should not be exposed to screens before the age of three and should only use them occasionally between the ages of three and six in the presence of an adult.
Associations suggest that the screen ban should be implemented at home and in schools.
They write: “ Neither screen technology nor its content, including so-called ‘educational’ content, are adapted to a small, developing brain. Children are not miniature adults: their needs are different needs.”
They add that every day, health professionals and preschool teachers "observe the damage caused by regular exposure to screens before children enter primary school: speech delay, attention deficit, memory problems and motor agitation."
Experts suggest that regular exposure to screens - however brief - has also had a negative effect on children's social and emotional development. They suggest that the problem affects all social groups, but particularly disadvantaged families, leading to greater "social inequalities".
Alternatives including "reading aloud, free play, board games or outdoor games, physical, creative and artistic activities."
The letter says: " No one would think of leaving a child under six years old to cross the street alone. Why then expose him to a screen when it risks his health and intellectual future?"
Last year, a report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron found that French children aged three to six spent an average of 1 hour and 47 minutes a day in front of a screen in 2014-15, according to the latest available research. However, since then, only one of the commission’s recommendations, regarding the exposure of children under three to screens, has been implemented.
Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has gone further, proposing banning children under 15 from social media, with an online "curfew" for 15-18-year-olds that prohibits their access to social media at 10:00 p.m.
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