Today in France, children aged 3 to 17 spend an average of 3 hours a day in front of screens, according to the Secretary of State for Children. This screen time increases with age to reach more than 7 hours per day for 23% of 15-17 year olds. During lockdown from March to May 2020, half of 18-24 year olds spent 7 hours or more of their free time in front of a screen per day. And children aged 6-12 had a daily exposure time to screens of about 7 hours, including time spent on education.
Faced with this observation, the government and various digital players have decided to react. During the Families’ Conference in Paris, Apple, Facebook, TikTok, Samsung, YouTube, Google, Netflix, France TV, SFR, Orange, Bouygues Telecom, as well as the CSA and child protection associations signed a ” protocol of commitments for a reasoned and reasonable use of screens among minors ”. It aims to expand the jeprotegemonenfant.gouv.fr site with practical and simple information and tools for parents.
44% of parents do not feel supported enough
The partners undertake to offer at least one free tool, or to put in place solutions intended to protect young people against overexposure to screens and inappropriate content, or to inform the user or promote these tools. They will provide the appropriate information related to their devices, services and products in order to make it available to parents on the site. jeprotegemonenfant.gouv.fr.
Launched in February 2020 and focused on controlling access to pornography, the site will be expanded in the coming weeks to become a unique information portal on digital parenting. 44% of parents do not feel sufficiently supported in the supervision of their child’s digital practice, according to the government.