- cross-posted to:
- france@jlai.lu
- cross-posted to:
- france@jlai.lu
Seine-Port is introducing restrictions on phone use in streets, shops and parks – but young people say there’s little else to do
A picture of a smartphone with a red line through it serves as a warning in the window of a hairdresser’s shop in a French village that has voted to ban people scrolling on their phones in public. “Everyone is struggling with too much screen time,” said Ludivine, a cardiology nurse, as she had her hair cut into a bob, leaving her phone out of sight in her bag. “I voted in favour, this could be a solution.”
Seine-Port, in the Seine-et-Marne area south of Paris, with a population of fewer than 2,000 people, last weekend voted yes in a referendum to restrict smartphone use in public, banning adults and children from scrolling on their devices while walking down the street, while sitting with others on a park bench, while in shops, cafes or eating in restaurants and while parents wait for their children in front of the school gates. Those who might check their phone’s map when lost are instead being encouraged to ask for directions.
The village has also approved a charter for families on children’s use of screens: no screens of any kind in the morning, no screens in bedrooms, no screens before bed or during meals. If parents of teenagers sign a written agreement not to give their child a smartphone before the age of 15, the town hall will provide the child with an old-fashioned handset for calls only.
Eh. Towns have all sorts of stupid ordinances like that and have for a very long time.
I mean, if you argue against ‘no phones’ ordinances because they take away basic freedoms, would you say the same about, for example, noise ordinances? Or public nudity laws?
The difference with those examples is that they affect other people and therefore need to be enforced. Limiting screen time in the home, however, affects no one but the occupants.
This would be like a municipality mandating that all home cooked meals must be made below a certain caloric threshold because they care about public health.
The at home part is something that’s encouraged, not mandatory, with compliance being rewarded.