How can we regulate the proper use of screens among the very young?
To answer this question, The President of the Republic has set up a commission of 12 experts, including Jonathan Bernard, researcher at CRESS and epidemiologist at Inserm.
“The President addressed the issues of social networks, their role during the riots, the relationship to truth, parenting, education, algorithms, cyberstalking, pornography and exposure of the youngest children. He wanted to highlight the fact that many of the issues running through society lead back to the subject of digital technology and screens.”
spoke about this “screens’ commission” at his press conference on Tuesday January 16. The commission’s findings are expected by the end of March. The main objective is to inform public debate on the use of screens by children and teenagers, thanks to a scientific consensus that will lay down ground rules and possible limits.
- Develop a consensus on the impact of screens on children and teenagers, particularly in cognitive and physical terms.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of existing regulation systems, in particular parental controls (which will be activated by default from July 2024, to protect minors from pornographic content on the Internet).
- Draw up a “user guide” for regulating screens
- Propose and promote tools adapted to all audiences, with approaches differentiated according to age. In this respect, the commission will undoubtedly also have to give its opinion on the use of screens in schools.
Jonathan Bernard is one of the lead authors of the study: Associations of screen use with cognitive development in early childhood: the ELFE birth cohort published on August 29, 2023 in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry – to read more about this publication, click here.
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