“What if, for the first time, our children’s life expectancy was lower than ours? » Asked at the opening of the magazine “Forbidden Zone” devoted to child health, the question can seem alarmist, even touting. Especially since a French study published on August 29 highlights the context in which children use screens. After watching Emmanuelle Mesplède’s documentary, however, the threat turns out to be plausible. But above all avoidable.
At the end of a one-year investigation, the director gives voice to health and education professionals, who have the intelligence not to stigmatize a generation of children or parents, nor reject the screens “en bloc”. All, on the other hand, advocate awareness of the dangers, and reasoned use of smartphones, televisions, computers, tablets and consoles.
There’s no time to lose. Children ages 2 to 5 look at a screen for more than 4 hours a day on average, an hour more than ten years ago. And this exposure time reaches 8 hours among 8-14 year olds. The cameras therefore followed several families in their daily lives to understand the causes of this excessive use – the tablet allows children to be put “on stand-by”, summarizes a mother of three children. At the same time, a physiological explanation is provided: screens provide effortless and unconstrained pleasure.
More seriously, the Ministry of Health noted a 94% increase in language disorders among the youngest between 2008 and 2018. This is the case of Aya, 2 and a half years old, who came to consult a specialist with her mother and his sister. Despite spending up to ten hours a day on a screen, she is unable to speak. The prescription seems simple: remove screens as much as possible; more complex implementation. “You’re going to hold on,” the therapist tells the mother – the viewer will see the impressive progress thirty minutes later.
Sedentary lifestyle and physical inactivity
Another consequence of overexposure to screens is induced sedentary lifestyle, illustrated by the lifestyle of Xavier, 11 years old, in Tourcoing (North). Like two-thirds of adolescents, Xavier spends ten hours a day sitting. The viewer then discovers the current playgrounds, inert, without children running or jumping rope – so we will be particularly attentive to the partnership launched by the director of the Mendès-France college in Tourcoing, with the Décathlon foundation.
In the meantime, Professor François Carré, cardiologist, warns: “Physical inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle kill more than tobacco.” He therefore launched an unprecedented study with 9,000 students, in Brittany, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Hauts-de-France, to assess the physical abilities of middle school students – some tests are filmed. The result: In 1987, children ran an average of 7 miles per hour; today, at 9.7 km/h… And 17% of adolescents are overweight.
This is the case of Eden, 11, who lives with her mother in Sourdeval (Manche). At the start of the sequence, he weighs 85 kg and is 1.51 m tall. Until Karine de Rouere, nutritionist, deciphered the hidden harms of cereals, fruit juices and other industrial dishes, and set the plan of attack (move, remove the TV from the bedroom). The boy will then prove to be exemplary. And more and more smiling.
