When French students aged 3 to 15 head to school next month, it will be without their cellphones. A new French law will prohibit children through the equivalent of ninth grade from using cellphones on school grounds, with narrow exceptions, according to Sam Schechner in The Wall Street Journal.
The new law is part of France’s effort to contend with the addictive nature of tech products’ persuasive design, which I wrote about last week.
Schechner quotes an approving French parent of a 12-year-old as saying children—and some adults—don’t have the maturing to use smartphones.
He quotes France’s education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, as saying, “We’re not seeking to reject technological progress—that would be absurd—but rather to master it, to make sure man is the master of the machine. It all begins with education.”
Schechner quotes eMarketer estimates that in 2017, 86% of French people aged 12 to 17 had smartphones, up from 59% three years earlier. The figures for the United States are 79% and 62%, respectively.
He adds that Silicon Valley has taken note of complaints about technology’s addictive qualities, with Facebook, Apple, and Google introducing tools that can help limit screen time.
Not all French educators are pleased with the new law. Writes Schechner, “Claire Krepper, national secretary of SE-UNSA, a teachers union, said she thinks the government should have focused its efforts on educating children to use mobile devices ‘reasonably and respectfully,’ rather than banning them.”
