It’s hard to imagine a French household without screens in 2025. Tablets, smartphones, connected televisions… they fill living rooms, kitchens, even bedrooms. For today’s kids, these devices are as much a part of daily life as books, toys, or games. The result: weekly screen time among young people under 19 keeps climbing. According to an Ipsos study for the French newspaper Les Échos, children aged 1 to 6 averaged 2 hours and 3 minutes a day in 2022 (up from 1 hour 47 minutes in 2011), 3 hours 32 minutes for ages 7 to 12 (up from 2 hours 51 minutes), and 5 hours 10 minutes for ages 13 to 19 (up from 4 hours 20 minutes). This constant presence of digital technology is changing parenting. The days of simply saying “no” to screens are over. The real question now is not whether children will use digital tools, but how to guide them so that screen time is useful.
Today, the question is no longer whether our children will use digital technology, but how to support them in this gradual discovery.
For years, the debate was black and white. On one side, the “pro screen” voices that highlighted educational benefits. On the other, the “anti screen” warnings about risks for cognitive development. And in the middle, parents caught between guilt and pragmatism. Today that rigid divide is giving way. Even the World Health Organization, which once advised zero screen exposure before age two, now makes a distinction between “passive screen time” and “interactive digital use.” And the distinction matters: watching a cartoon is not the same as joining a video call with grandparents. Recent research shows that the real issue isn’t the screen itself but how it is used … and at what age.
According to the 2024 study: Parents, children and digital technology by the Observatoire de la Parentalité et de l’Éducation Numérique, 89% of French parents say they worry about their children’s screen use, but only 34% enforce strict rules. That gap shows how challenging it is to manage day to day. Meanwhile, according to Arcep, 91% of children aged 12 and over own a smartphone, and the non-profit e-Enfance notes that 24% of young people aged 8 to 18 say they could not last more than an hour without one! These figures reveal the extent of the challenge for parents and why supervision matters as much, if not more, than screen time.
Psychiatrist Serge Tisseron, a member of the French Academy of Technologies, suggests the “3 6 9 12” rule as a practical framework :
No screens before age 3... Children need adults to help them discover their senses and learn their bearings. Play, talk, and avoid TV!
From 3 to 6 years old, is the age of first discoveries, when children can begin to understand what they see on screen. A maximum of 30-45 minutes per day, with appropriate educational content. And, of course, no screens in the morning before school or in the evening before bedtime.
From ages 6 to 9, children need to learn the rules of social interaction. This is the time to teach them how to use screens and explain the internet to them.
From 9 to 12 years old, It's about learning independence: how to protect yourself and your digital interactions. Screen time can be extended to 1-1.5 hours on school days, and more on weekends. This is also the age when you can introduce a few video games, always with supervision.
After 12 years, children become increasingly independent from family guidelines. No more timers—it's time for dialogue and self-regulation! The challenge for parents is to maintain a balance between digital and offline activities, while remaining as available as possible to guide their children toward appropriate use.
At Orange, we don’t claim to have the final word on digital parenting. Every family has its own routines, challenges, and values. Our role is to provide tools that let parents make their own informed choices. That’s why our new generation of parental controls goes beyond the old “allow or block” approach, offering evolving profiles that adapt to a child’s age. Ages 3 to 6: automatic selection of educational content with built-in breaks every 20 minutes. Ages 6 to 12: fun dashboards that let children see their screen time and take part in managing it. Teens: digital well-being tools that flag overuse without being condescending.
We’re also working with France Télévisions and other youth media partners to design “smart” content: programs that stop automatically after the recommended viewing time, suggest related off-screen activities, and invite parents to extend the experience in everyday life. And since 2024, families can book a free one hour session in Orange stores with a digital parenting advisor. Together they can set up tools, explore age-specific challenges, and even draw up a family charter for screen use. Because technology is only ever a tool – what matters most is how we choose to use it.
Digital technology is not going to disappear. Quite the contrary. Generative AI, connected glasses, voice assistants, and the metaverse currently under development will make screens even more present—and often invisible. Hence the importance, starting today, of developing healthy habits when using these tools. And ultimately, this shift towards age-appropriate screen time reflects a collective maturity. We are moving from an anxiety-inducing approach to digital technology to a constructive one. We are moving away from guilt and towards support. Screens are part of our era. Rather than suffering them, we are learning to embrace them. And if our children are growing up with them, we might as well make sure it's in the right conditions. So we continue to innovate so that growing up with digital technology is synonymous with growing up full stop. Because while each age has its own screen time, each family has its own solution. And Orange is there to help everyone find theirs.
