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.
The ultimate goal of democracy is to allow people to organize themselves and their society in whatever way they see fit. If the enforcement (or lack thereof) of this law is not in strides with national law, I don’t see the problem with this ordinance. It is a way of putting some more social pressure to the habit of smartphone usage in public spaces and the daily life of people in this town. People who don’t follow through suffer literally no consequence, but I bet it will change habits for what the inhabitants of this town think it’s for the better. Let them have this, I say.
I don’t know, this sounds like the sort of rule that’s implemented by the same sort of people who are always in homeowners associations. A bunch of Karen’s with nothing better to do except make random pronouncements about how everyone else should live their lives.