France Takes On Cellphone Addiction With a Ban in Schools 

A French law is set to bar cellphone use by primary and middle school students, an effort to cut down on distractions in class and encourage play or reading during recess.

PARIS—Solal Paroux’s friends all have smartphones, and the 12-year-old Parisian has been needling his parents to get him one too. But his parents are resisting.

And now they have the law on their side.

When school starts up in September, a new French law will ban students ranging roughly from ages 3 to 15 from using smartphones anywhere on school grounds, with only narrow exceptions.

The law is one of the most sweeping attempts yet to address growing concerns among parents and educators that a generation of children is growing up addicted to the mobile devices in their pockets.

“Children don’t have the maturity” for smartphones, said Valérie Paroux, Solal’s mother. “Some adults don’t either.”

France’s education minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, says the ban, which applies to the French equivalent of preschool through ninth grade, is intended to remove distractions during class and to encourage children to read a book or play outside during recreation. He says he hopes the law will serve as a symbolic message to both children and adults beyond school.

“We’re not seeking to reject technological progress—that would be absurd—but rather to master it, to make sure man is the master of the machine,” said Mr. Blanquer, who himself has two smartphones. “It all begins with education.”

In recent months, complaints that big tech firms’ products are too addictive, particularlyfor children, have started to resonate in Silicon Valley. Facebook Inc. earlier this month said it would start offering tools to show users how long they use its service and alert them to take a break.

Apple Inc. AAPL 0.23%and Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL -2.06%Google each also plans to introduce similar tools into new operating systems for iPhones and Android phones. Apple’s “Screen Time” system will enable parents remotely to monitor the apps their children use and limit their time on devices. Continue reading “France Takes On Cellphone Addiction With a Ban in Schools “ →

Paris Match: Jain

French MPs want new tax to tackle France’s salt addiction 

French MPs aim to introduce a new tax on salty foods in a bid to reduce the amount consumed in France where the intake of salt exceeds the recommended amount by a whopping 60 percent.

French food might be known for being mouthwatering but all those delicious cheeses, baguettes and saucissons don’t exactly help minimize your salt intake.  In fact, the French consume an average of 8 grams of salt per day while the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a maximum of 5 grams each day.  That means the French exceed the recommended intake of salt by 60 percent.  But now a group of 20 French MPs — all members of a committee carrying out an inquiry into industrial food production — is hoping to change all that by bringing in a tax on salty foods to encourage manufacturers to decrease the amount they include in their products, according to Le Figaro.

These MPs argue that at the moment consumers are too limited by what’s on the supermarket shelves.  “The consumer has no choice: most of the salt that they eat is found in pre-prepared dishes” with the consumption of these kinds of meals “exploding in recent years”, said the committee’s spokesperson, MP for La Republique en Marche Michele Crouzet.  [ . . . ]

Continue at THE LOCAL: French MPs want new tax to tackle France’s salt addiction – The Local

Agnès Varda, the queen of the meme

Cats, strange vegetables, street art, foraged food, feminism and playful ironic self-reflection: these things are at the heart of Instagram culture, but Agnès Varda, the veteran French-Belgian documentary-maker, was filming them years ago. Although the grande dame of the French New Wave, it’s now at the age of 90, and with the superb Faces Places, that her legacy is being fully rediscovered. A touring cinema programme and a Curzon Home release of some of her early work is bringing her to wider attention.

Varda’s later-life documentaries are personal and playful, an older woman looking back at a life of curiosity amid major social change. The Gleaners and I (2000), in which she riffs on the traditional French idea of those who scavenge after harvests, gets all the attention. For me, it’s The Beaches of Agnès (2008) that’s the magical one.

In it, Varda reflects on her love of seaside locations, and uses the beaches of her youth as a backdrop for restaging memories of love and loss while playing games and pondering creativity. Mixing archive clips, observational material, constructed fantastical sequences and to-camera reminiscences, she roams the country, musing on interesting random encounters.

One moment she’s sailing down the Seine; the next, she’s walking around dressed as a potato in her own art exhibition. It could be twee, this national treasure having fun with her memories. But Varda is sharp and no pushover. She has strong opinions on being an artist, on feminism, on the need for culture-makers to depict the working class with dignity, and on the importance of film-makers and artists being part of social change [ . . . ]

Continue at THE GUARDIAN: Agnès Varda, the queen of the meme | Film | The Guardian

Amorous dolphin forces bathers ashore in Finistère

Mayor of Breton town issues swimming ban as lovey-dovey dolphin causes chaos off coast

An overly amorous dolphin has prompted the mayor of a coastal town in Finistère to ban swimming in the sea.The dolphin, which has been named Zafar, is well-known in the Plougastel-Daoulas area – and has even become something of a mascot to kayakers and other water sports enthusiasts.But as it enters mating season, the animal has moved further down the coast to Landévennec, a small town famous for its abbey – where it has been butting up alongside boats and chasing swimmers. [ . . . ]

Continue at THE CONNEXION: Amorous dolphin forces bathers ashore in Finistère