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.
No smartphones in the street, or parks or shops, whatever, it’s their town.
This, however-
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.
is ludicrous.
No smartphones in the street, or parks or shops, whatever, it’s their town.
Screw that. A town shouldn’t have the authority to take away basic freedoms like that, even if literally every citizen directly votes in favor of doing so.
I disagree with the part about "if every single person votes for it ", if absolutely every single person votes for it, then that is the town they want. Why shouldn’t they be able to have the town they want? Who are we to tell them they can’t have the town they want? In my opinion even a super majority would suffice. By super majority I mean 70%-75%.
If it were just the city council voting on it then I’d have to look a lot closer at it, but again if the majority of the public wants it then why not?
Edit : as for the part about no smart phones in the bedroom or home, it also says if the parents agree to it, then the kids would get a free flip phone. It doesn’t say they can’t have it at all.
Because it’s not valid to vote to take away basic human rights, like the freedom to use simple, necessary modern tools.
If every single person wants it wouldn’t they all already be doing it? It would make no sense to make a law for something everyone is already doing.
Fair, but I also have the super majority listed because you will basically never hit 100% of people wanting something.
Eh. Towns have all sorts of stupid ordinances like that and have for a very long time.
I mean, if you argue against ‘no phones’ ordinances because they take away basic freedoms, would you say the same about, for example, noise ordinances? Or public nudity laws?
This is similar to laws in small towns in America around the 1900s. Like “no chewing gum with your mouth open”.
And today we absolutely laugh at those idiots.
The difference with those examples is that they affect other people and therefore need to be enforced. Limiting screen time in the home, however, affects no one but the occupants.
This would be like a municipality mandating that all home cooked meals must be made below a certain caloric threshold because they care about public health.
Sorry, I misread this when I replied originally. I agree with the in the home part. That’s what I was saying initially.
I also misread the direction of the conversation, that’s on me.
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I’ve walked into others and others have walked into me without a phone. Should we ban kids from being in public because they’re more likely to run into people? Plus the law doesn’t ban the use of phones only when walking, nor does it ban one from looking at other distractions while walking such as books or magazines, so that’s clearly not the motivation behind it.
Alternatively, if smartphone bans can be justified why draw the line there and not go further? Should we restrict gay couples from making public displays of affection? Or restrict what clothes women can wear? These things can distract/upset some people, and they may not want their kids to see it either.
There’s obviously a certain balance between freedom and safety/order that we need to achieve for a functioning society, but banning phones is not on that balance.
It’s not an enforceable ordinance. The article literally says the police can’t stop or fine anyone for it.
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Emphasis on in the home. I guess I was mainly responding to the idea that kids shouldn’t have access to screens at home.
The at home part is something that’s encouraged, not mandatory, with compliance being rewarded.
Tradition is never a valid defense for anything. If there are good reasons, use those instead. What-about-ism also doesn’t address the topic at hand.
Defend banning smartphones.
Oh for fuck’s sake, they aren’t banning smartphones.
They can’t ban smartphones.
It is not an enforceable ordinance.
Read the article.
“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.”
unless i misread what is wrote in that paragraph, they basically said banning adults and children from scrolling on their devices in basically any public area. it even goes on to say if someone is lost and normally would use the mapping software to find their way they are told basically to ask someone else. at the end of the day it’s basically banning their usage in public. i mean if they are claiming to only “restrict smarphone use in public” but then turn around and basically say that anything that a normal person would use them for is banned, then it basically is banned in public.
as you said “it is not an enforceable ordinance” but to me there is little difference… it’s basically just splitting hairs. the people in the area are basically saying don’t use the phone in public. what is the realistic end result if i went to that town and used my phone in public. what is the honest reaction of the public towards me going to be? friendly? … no not likely.
most likely it would be quite unfriendly.
which basically would make me put my phone away.
end result? effectively i have a choice get treated poorly (but get to use my phone in public) or not use my phone and then have a more pleasant stay. realistically the phone is basically banned in public.
on a side note: it should be mentioned, i have no problem on the public having a vote and deciding how they want their town to be run. if they want to pass that sort of thing and it is in a large enough majority then go for it. i’m not objecting to their actions. it’s their town.
The public in the town didn’t want people using their phones in public to begin with, which is why they voted for it. Do you think they would be more friendly if there was no ordinance? All this does is put something they already didn’t want on the books but it can never be enforced. You would be treated in an unfriendly manner either way.
I mean do you really think people in this town were okay with public phone use and then someone said, “hey, let’s put an unenforceable ban in place!” and the town said, “this will solve the problem! Now we can be rude to people who use phones in public!”
Just FYI, there are plenty of places in this world where people will be unfriendly to you if you use your phone in public. The difference here is you’ll have a warning about it.
I guess you’d prefer to not have that warning?
If your end conclusion is that "I’d prefer to not have a warning " then I think you missed my point. I’m not opposed to the vote they took. I honestly don’t care how they voted. Even if they somehow made it an actual law I still really wouldn’t care either way. It’s their town. I was only disagreeing with your statement that they weren’t banning anything.
Personally I think a lot more things should be decided by purely popular vote. I honestly should make a post about a constitutional amendment I would like put through in the US. Just no idea of where to post it. (And actually have anyone see it.)
Read the article? Well, that’s against my human rights of building half assed opinions based on misleading article titles and clickbait.
Noise actually materially affects other people.
Having a smart phone doesn’t. Even allowing a rule like this to get to a vote should get their government disbanded and forced to re-form from scratch or fall under another municipality’s jurisdiction.
As I said to the other person- I’ve had people looking down at smartphones plow into me on the sidewalk. I’ve seen people looking down at their smartphones and crossing the street almost get run over. It does affect other people. Including making noise since there are plenty of people who think the world wants to hear whatever they want to hear on their phone.
This is absurd. People run into each other occasionally, with or without cell phones.
This isn’t a minor violation. It’s completely, unforgivably, obscene. There’s no possible scenario where it could possibly be justified or forgiven, and no possible scenario where a government could possibly be excused in having that authority.
This isn’t a minor violation. It’s completely, unforgivably, obscene.
I think you’re being a little hyperbolic here. They aren’t rounding up people and arresting them for pulling their phones out of their pockets. The article literally says-
It is not enforceable by police – officers could not stop or fine people scrolling in the street because there is no national law against smartphones – but the mayor describes it as an incitement to stop scrolling and guidance for limiting phone use.
And the majority of the town voted for it.
So I’m really not seeing the issue here.
I’m not. I’m dead serious.
Having the law on the books, without enforcement, should get their charter revoked. It is not acceptable.
I’ve had people looking down at smartphones plow into me on the sidewalk. I’ve seen people looking down at their smartphones and crossing the street almost get run over.
That used to happen with people reading newspapers. It was a movie cliche for someone to bump into a love interest because they were walking while reading.
Sure, and if there were an unenforceable 'no walking down the sidewalk while reading a newspaper ordinance," I’d be just as unconcerned about this.
But it’s not, “No walking while reading.” It is, “No reading in public.”
From the summary at the top of this post:
“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.”
In the modern world where internet is necessary for a lot of things, what better way to equip future generations for the world outside of their village than to almost force computer illiteracy on them by ‘banning’ all computers (along with the bad grades they’re likely to get for IT in schools as a result of that, putting off some future employers), so forward thinking
Once again- they aren’t banned. This is an unenforceable ordinance.
I wish people would read the article… or at least read any other comments.
I got the impression that this part is a voluntary guidline
It’s all voluntary. I just think the last part is especially ludicrous.
What a bunch of clowns. Nanny states never work.
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This is the most, small french town thing ever. There is never anything to do in these places so the younger generation always leave literally because there’s no employment opportunities unless you want to become a baker, in which case there are 80 different bakeries in a town with a population of 400.
So the kids go elsewhere and leave behind all of the old folk with nothing to do except curtain twitch. And you end up with dumb pronouncements like this. Looking at your phone is functionally no different to reading a book or a newspaper.
Yeah let’s go back to when kids had literally nothing to do and had to invent stuff. I’m sure that’ll not cause any problems.
Being bored has positive impact on kids, it stimulates creativity. Having screen has negative impact.
As someone who was locked in a room with nothing to do for years, yeah fuck that. Having a phone allows me to constantly learn and it is infinitely superior.
Locked in the room, and not using screen in public places in that village are different things.
Ah yes, kids outside playing with friends and using their creativity to come up with things to do. That was such a dangerous time and all of us who grew up before mobile devices were everywhere are all in jail because we did stupid shit. Not to mention how unhealthy if was to be running around, biking, blading, etc out in the sun.
Yep, let’s reinforce kids never getting any sun and spending all of their time living through their phones or pads and never really experiencing life in the moment.
This isn’t just about the kids anymore though. Even gray hairs who grew up before we had even the motorola brick are watching entire concerts through their phone.
I’m not saying that I agree with the “state” trying to set those kind of limits. That’s up to parents or other guardians. I remember when having a TV in your room was a privilege now even toddlers have iphones/pads that they scream and cry without.
yes, let’s
Is it an advertisement for Vision Pro?
Lmao
I love saying it:
Get fucked people.
Who upvotes this edgy teenager garbage?
My response is pretty reasonable.
Edgy 14 year olds always set the bar for reasonableness.
If fellow adult came up to me and asked me to put my phone away when I was in public I would kindly ask how I could help them fuck off. I don’t know what to tell you taco Tuesday, but the people that come up with this stuff and not anything useful….can get fucked.
I get it, you pride yourself like acting like a child both online and in real life. Good for you.
I’ve been outraged for decades about people in public service position of powers not doing what’s in the best interest of others. I just oversimplified my general frustration with these ass clown type of people who are so fucking out of touch with reality, this is what we get: a steaming pile of shit that these people are proud of.
Again, get fucked. This is not helpful at all, but makes them feel empowered like they have done something when in reality, they have just wasted countless hours.
I don’t give a fuck about how you perceive me, but this type of thinking is getting us nowhere and has to stop.
So please, at this point, how can I help you fuck off since you are just whining about my use profanity and I don’t give a fuck.
Lol decades and you still talk like that? Holy shit, I figured you were a teenager.
Also have to love the “let me write this long reply defending myself…but I don’t care what you think!” Transparent like a teenager too.
Time to grow up, my man.
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 bet it will change habits for what the inhabitants of this town think it’s for the better.
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.
so no scrolling but you don’t have to scroll everything. playing games or watching youtube is fine i guess
