\n Smartphones,\u00a0video\u00a0games, online\u00a0homework: screens are\u00a0everywhere\u00a0in teenagers’\u00a0lives.\u00a0Faced\u00a0with\u00a0the\u00a0risks\u00a0of addiction and the\u00a0effects\u00a0on mental and\u00a0physical\u00a0health,\u00a0some French parents and\u00a0teachers\u00a0are pushing back.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Rayan is 13 years old and, like nine out of 10 children<\/a> his age, he owns a smartphone<\/a>. Until a few months ago,\u00a0he would spend\u00a0several hours a day playing free online games. “I just wanted to stay home in my bedroom all the time, shutters closed, playing Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft,\u00a0Brawlstars…” he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n Within weeks,\u00a0Rayan\u00a0was hooked. On days off school, he could spend up to 12 hours a day in front of a screen. His concentration suffered, and so did his grades. “He stopped going out, he was always in his room. You had to nag him, and when you took his phone away,\u00a0he’d\u00a0storm off to his room and turn the whole place upside down,” his mother recalls.<\/p>\n Rayan himself admits he had lost all self-control: “I had this deep anger inside because gaming was supposed to relax me, but in the\u00a0end\u00a0it was doing the exact opposite.” His parents felt completely out of their depth. “He\u00a0wasn’t my son\u00a0anymore,\u00a0it was really hard… We\u00a0didn’t\u00a0know what to do with him anymore,” his mother explains. “We also felt like we were bad parents,” his father\u00a0says.\u00a0Feeling out of their depth, his parents\u00a0eventually decided to ask for help.\u00a0<\/p>\n ‘The\u00a0only\u00a0comparison\u00a0that\u00a0holds\u00a0up\u00a0is\u00a0alcohol\u00a0or hard\u00a0drugs’\u00a0 <\/p>\n At the Georges\u00a0Daum\u00e9zon\u00a0Hospital near Orl\u00e9ans, psychologist Sabine Duflo sees screen-addicted teenagers\u00a0once\u00a0a week. Ninety percent of her patients are boys around the age of fourteen, who play free online multi-player video games. All these games share one thing in common: random rewards. “It’s that randomness that creates\u00a0the addiction,” explains Duflo. “The only fair comparison\u00a0is alcohol or hard drugs,” adds the psychologist, who is also the founder of the Collective\u00a0on Screen\u00a0Overexposure (COSE). In her view, there is only one solution for overcoming this addiction: withdrawal. “If your child was 13, had a drinking problem, and I prescribed\u00a0a detox, you’d think that was perfectly reasonable, right? It’s the same thing\u00a0with\u00a0video games.”<\/p>\n The first few days of withdrawal\u00a0were\u00a0hard for Rayan, but within a few weeks,\u00a0he started noticing a difference.\u00a0“I actually think more about my friends now, about going out with them,” he says.\u00a0His mother says\u00a0he’s\u00a0become much more of a chatterbox.\u00a0<\/p>\n Today in France<\/a>,\u00a0most\u00a0children get their first smartphone\u00a0at the age\u00a0of nine, and\u00a0according\u00a0to\u00a0the national health authority, spend more than four hours a day on screens outside of school time. Many health professionals are raising the alarm about the risks to children’s and teenagers’ mental and physical health: deteriorating sleep quality, exposure to violent or pornographic content, stress, anxiety, depression and declining attention spans.\u00a0<\/p>\n Faced\u00a0with\u00a0the dangers of smartphones, parents\u00a0join\u00a0forces\u00a0 <\/p>\n In response to these risks, some French parents are\u00a0banding together. Anne-Laure Bailly coordinates the “Growing Up Better Without a Smartphone”\u00a0initiative\u00a0in the Paris<\/a> region, encouraging families to hold off on giving their child a smartphone for as long as possible and not before the age of 15. “If your child’s friends don’t have a smartphone, it will be much easier to resist,” she\u00a0says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ga\u00eblle de Waru signed up\u00a0for\u00a0the initiative\u00a0to protect her children. “The last thing I want is a child who’s hooked on screens,” she says. Her daughter Cl\u00e9mentine is\u00a0nearly 14\u00a0and only has a\u00a0flip\u00a0phone, just like two of her closest friends.\u00a0Cl\u00e9mentine says she\u00a0notices\u00a0the difference: “We actually spend real time\u00a0together;\u00a0we talk so much more.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Contradictory\u00a0messages\u00a0 <\/p>\n