INSEE study
A new study by INSEE reveals that 27% children under the age of 2 spend an average of 20 minutes per day in front of digital screens.
Appearing as a guest on Camille Revel's France Info programme, Justine Atlan, Executive Director of the e-Enfance/3018 Association, commented on these figures: «Unfortunately, this does not surprise us. Every day, we receive requests to raise awareness among increasingly younger children. Before it was primary schools, and now it's nursery schools who ask us to intervene.»
«We raise awareness among children, but also among parents. The idea is to also to raise awareness among those who are supposed to educate them. (…) Most parents are not malicious at all, they just don't know any better., they do not realise the consequences this can have and do not know how to manage screen time as a family. As shown in the INSEE study, the family structure has a huge impact. Raising an only child is not the same as raising the youngest of three or four siblings who all have screens at home.»
Advice for parents
Regarding the advice to give to parents, Justine Atlan specifies that it is necessary to: « Consider the screen as something that, unfortunately, is not insignificant.. (…) Parents often feel that depriving their child of access to digital technology will hinder their development as a teenager and adult and their integration into digital society. Parents need to understand that the opposite is true.»
Nevertheless, Three quarters of children are kept away from screens.. For the chief executive, it is «rather comforting to think that most children are not exposed to screens for such long periods of time. It's a good sign that information and awareness-raising efforts are being made. (…) And we are also seeing the arrival of a new generation of parents, who themselves used screens as teenagers and are aware of what they may have been exposed to. »
