Sweden wants to ban screen use for young people

© CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Archives

Sweden is in the midst of a complete about-face on its position regarding screens in schools. Initially in a dynamic of innovation by giving its younger generations the opportunity to study with screens in their hands instead of heavy textbooks, now the country is backtracking. 

While in May 2023 the government recognized, on the advice of doctors, the responsibility of screens in the decline in its students' levels, the authorities are now recommending preventing little Swedes from watching any screens until they are two years old. The recommendations go even further, by encouraging children between two and five years old to be limited to one hour per day for screens, and two hours for children between six and twelve years old.

This Monday, September 2, the Swedish authorities are mobilizing for this return to school by encouraging, through the publication of new recommendations, that children under two years old are not exposed to any screens. The Public Health Agency is thus giving new directives following the lack of quality of learning, due to the significant use of tablets and other digital “toys”.

Under semi-confessions, the country's Minister of Public Health, Jakob Forssmed, acknowledges to the press that “for too long, smartphones and other screens have been able to enter all aspects of our children's lives”. He continues the spiel by declaring that adolescents aged 13 to 16 spend an average of six and a half hours a day in front of a screen. And this, outside of school hours. The country deplores a “sleep crisis” among its youngest, with high school students who no longer get enough sleep. Among the reasons given, the place of the screen in their daily lives is clearly indicated.

So, it is strongly recommended to ban all screens before bedtime. To prevent parents from being fooled, the authorities go further by recommending to keep all these digital objects out of the child's bedroom.

Screens, beyond impacting our sleep, would also have deleterious effects on mental health and tend to cause a loss of body awareness. Symptomatic of the omnipresence of mobile phones even among the youngest, the Swedish government is considering banning smartphones in primary school. An age when it seems so curious to us to have such access to the excesses of this world.

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