EUROPE 1 AND YOU - Are parents responsible for their children's addiction to screens?

Louise Sallé, edited by Laura Laplaud 07:57, February 06, 2023

Does the laptop always accompany you?

At work, in transport, and even at home... Many parents feel guilty about using it with and in front of their children.

According to a study by Ifop, nine out of ten doctors consider that the use of screens harms the development of children between 0 and 6 years old.

This can lead to behavioral, sleep and mood disturbances.

Disorders that the parents themselves constant when they stay too long in front of a screen.

Europe 1 went to a kindergarten to ask parents the following question: "Do you use your laptop in front of your children?".

Isabelle, who has come to pick up her five-year-old child, displays an embarrassed smile.

"Yes, I use it in front of them and my eight-year-old daughter blames me for it so I feel a little guilty," she says.

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Nearly 20% of parents admit that screens have taken up a lot of space in their homes

Screens have taken a very important place in the homes of the French, admit 20% of parents who can no longer control their use.

"My child is already attracted to the object. As soon as he sees it pass, he wants to grab it. It's scary," says Anne-Laure, mother of a one-year-old baby. 

"It's a big effort for me"

So you have to force yourself to let go of the phone.

Olfa has set this rule with her four-year-old daughter: "It's a big effort for me. When we come home, I put it down somewhere and I don't use it anymore."

She still allows her daughter to watch a cartoon for a few minutes a day, which "enriches the vocabulary". 

Are screens beneficial for 0-6 year olds?

Pediatricians note an impoverishment of language in this age group.

For two-thirds of the doctors questioned, parents are not sufficiently informed about the dangers of screens.