Macron says even Élysée meetings require phones to be put away

Emmanuel Macron used a classroom in Mende to make the case for keeping mobile phones out of French high schools. The president told students that screens and social media can distract young people from learning subjects and developing critical thinking.

The students had already handed over their phones one by one. A total of 33 devices sat in numbered compartments attached to the classroom wall, according to an AFP journalist who observed the visit.

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Scientifically, it has been established that at your age, and given that you are here to learn content and subjects, learn critical thinking and develop yourselves, phones, screens and even more so social networks distract you from that purpose.

The policy did not win universal agreement among the pupils. Some said they understood the new restriction, while others called it “infantilizing” in a world where mobile phones have become “indispensable”. Macron answered that putting phones aside represented a form of discipline that adults also need to practice.

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a discipline

He offered his own example, saying he “asked people to put their phones down” when he held meetings at the Élysée. Otherwise, he said, people ended up attending meetings while looking at their phones, drawing a few laughs from the students.

Macron also said his government was working again on legislation to ban social-media use for under-15s. The Constitutional Council rejected the earlier flagship measure in mid-August, citing freedom of expression. Macron gave no timetable for a new proposal and argued that young people were still developing emotionally, while excessive exposure could contribute to dependence and attention problems.

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asked people to put their phones down