Jonathan Bernard, laureate of the Inserm “Science and Society-Opecst 2024” award on Tuesday 10 December 2024
The work carried out with his team on the links between the use of screens and children’s development has earned him the Science et société-Opecst prize, because it sheds scientific light on the debates on the place of screens in everyday life. It’s a major contribution to a subject of major concern to society and parents.
Jonathan Bernard was doing a Masters in biology and health at the University of Montpellier, and was already thinking seriously about going into epidemiology. The year was 2009. “I wanted to work in health but not be a doctor, I liked statistics but not really mathematics. In the end, it was a series of paradoxes that led me to this fascinating profession! Jonathan Bernard became involved in nutritional epidemiology as part of his thesis, which he completed in Paris. He is studying the impact of breastfeeding and the composition of mother’s milk on children’s cognition and language using the Eden cohort, led by his team, which includes almost 2,000 children followed from birth.
The early origins of health
But a neuropsychologist colleague aroused her curiosity on another subject. In the same cohort, she was exploring the effect of screens on the language of the youngest children. Intrigued, Jonathan Bernard began to explore the literature and decided to study this topic during his postdoctorate in Singapore. “Already in 2014, screens were omnipresent in Singapore at all ages, with a hyper-technophile society and a level of use that went well beyond what was observed in France at the time. My laboratory in Singapore had collected a lot of data on the use of screens”, he explains. He spent four years there studying the links between screen use and health.
On his return to France, he was invited to continue his research using the national Elfe cohort, which tracks 18,000 children from birth. He then set up a project and brought together a team of ten people at the Centre de recherche en épidémiologie et statistiques to look into the subject in greater depth. The researchers brought to light the weight of social inequalities in the use of screens, and established the link between watching television during meals and poorer language development in young children.
Informing citizens and decision-makers
“When I began my research, French society was not as concerned as it is today about the use of screens by young people. The context was more peaceful. Today, it has become polarised. Every new study on the subject is widely reported in the press, and we get a lot of requests from the media. Managing this fallout represents a major investment in bringing nuance to the public debate on a subject that is complex in terms of public health, with high economic and diplomatic stakes”, he notes. Jonathan Bernard is now continuing his research, using the same cohorts whose children are growing up. This long-term monitoring will make it possible to study the effect of the use of screens and social networks on other key developmental and health parameters during adolescence: mental health, executive functions, school results, addiction to online gambling and sexuality.
“We remain very free in our research, but we can see that the public authorities are waiting for data to inform debates and steer prevention and regulation policies in the digital sector”. The epidemiologist was invited to take part in the Écrans commission set up by the French President in January. On this occasion, the commission took stock of the current state of knowledge and made recommendations. “Digital technology has become omnipresent in our lives. It is important to provide scientific data on the risks associated with its use, in order to protect public health. This prize is proof that our work is having an impact and informing the debate in society. My team and I are delighted and proud to receive it.”
- L. Poncet et coll. Sociodemographic and behavioural factors of adherence to the no-screen guideline for toddlers among parents from the French nationwide Elfe birth cohort. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act., 12 août 2022 ; doi : 10.1186/s12966-022–01342‑9
- J. Bernard et coll. Temps d’écran de 2 à 5 ans et demi chez les enfants de la cohorte nationale Elfe. Bull Épidémiol Hebd., 12 avril 2023 ; beh/2023/6/2023_6_1
- P. Martinot et coll. Exposure to screens and children’s language development in the EDEN mother–child cohort. Sci Rep., 8 juin 2021 ; doi : 10.1038/s41598-021–90867‑3
- S. Yang et coll. Associations of screen use with cognitive development in early childhood : the ELFE birth cohort. J Child Psychol Psychiatry., 29 août 2023 ; doi : 10.1111/jcpp.13887
