{"id":4601,"date":"2025-05-12T09:43:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T09:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/?p=4601"},"modified":"2025-05-12T09:43:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T09:43:37","slug":"children-under-six-should-avoid-screen-time-french-medical-experts-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/children-under-six-should-avoid-screen-time-french-medical-experts-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Children under six should avoid screen time, French medical experts say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Children under the age of six should not be exposed to screens, including television<\/a><\/strong>, to avoid permanent damage to their brain development, French medical experts have said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TV, tablets, computers<\/a><\/strong>, video games and smartphones have \u201calready had a heavy impact on a young generation sacrificed on the altar of ignorance\u201d, according to an open letter to the government from five leading health bodies \u2013 the societies of paediatrics, public health, ophthalmology, child and adolescent psychiatry, and health and environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calling for an urgent rethink by public policies to protect future generations, they said: \u201cScreens<\/a><\/strong> in whatever form do not meet children\u2019s needs. Worse, they hinder and alter brain development,\u201d causing \u201ca lasting alteration to their health and their intellectual capacities\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current recommendations in France are that children should not be exposed to screens before the age of three and have only \u201coccasional use<\/a><\/strong>\u201d between the ages of three and six in the presence of an adult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The societies suggest the ban on screens should apply at home and in schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They wrote: \u201cNeither the screen technology<\/a><\/strong> nor its content, including so-called \u2018educational\u2019 content, are adapted to a small developing brain. Children are not miniature adults: their needs are different needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They add that every day health professionals<\/a><\/strong> and infant school teachers \u201cobserve the damage caused by regular exposure to screens before they [children] enter elementary school: delayed language, attention deficit, memory problems and motor agitation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experts suggest regular exposure to screens \u2013 however brief \u2013 has also had a negative effect on children\u2019s social<\/a><\/strong> and emotional development. They suggest the problem affects all social groups, but particularly disadvantaged households leading to greater \u201csocial inequalities\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternatives including \u201creading aloud, free play, board games or outdoor games<\/a><\/strong>, physical, creative and artistic activities\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter says: \u201cIt would occur to no one to let a child of under six cross the road on their own. Why then expose them to a screen<\/a><\/strong> when this compromises their health and their intellectual future?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, a report commissioned by France\u2019s president, Emmanuel Macron, found that French three- to six-year-olds spent an average of 1 hour 47 minutes a day in front of a screen in 2014-15, the latest available research. Since then, however, only one of the commission\u2019s recommendations, concerning the exposure of under-threes to screens<\/a><\/strong>, has been implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former prime minister Gabriel Attal has gone further, proposing to ban children under 15 from social media, with an online \u201ccurfew\u201d for 15- to 18-year-olds halting their access to social media<\/a><\/strong> at 10pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. TV, tablets, computers, video games and smartphones have \u201calready had a heavy impact on a young generation sacrificed on the altar of ignorance\u201d, according to an open letter to the … Continue reading “Children under six should avoid screen time, French medical experts say”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2485,2487,2488,2486,2489,2478,2490,2433],"class_list":["post-4601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-children","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mobile-phones","tag-news","tag-smartphones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4602,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions\/4602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tech-battery.com\/batteriesblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}