Quebec education minister Bernard Drainville is now considering banning cell phones everywhere in schools, and not just in classroom, as is currently the case.
“On the (topic of) screens, there is a strategy. (…) This strategy must be renewed. We are thinking about this. It is a subject that is very important, we recognize it,” said Drainville at a brief press scrum at the Quebec legislature.
“But we didn’t wait to act. We banned cell phones in classrooms. Should we go further? We’re thinking about it, we’ll get back to you on that,” he added.
This is a change of rhetoric for the minister.
For some time now, he has been under pressure from the Parti Québécois (PQ), which is calling for the adoption of several new measures to limit young people’s screen time.
According to the PQ, the government’s guiding principle on the matter is “the need to get screens out of school, as much as possible.”
The opposition party believes that it is essential to take cell phones out of elementary and high schools, including during breaks and recess, as France has done since 2018.
“Quebec schools must be exemplary among our young people,” said PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in a press release Tuesday. “Our young people must reconnect with non-virtual interactions when they’re at school, and that obviously includes during breaks and during recess.”
The government directive banning the use of cell phones in class came into effect in the winter – after the holiday season. It prohibits cell phone use in primary and secondary school classrooms, except for specific educational purposes at the request of the teacher.
The PQ believes that it should go further. It argues that “not grasping the urgency to act is a mistake” and maintains that the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government is “dragging its feet on this issue.”
Digital majority
The PQ is also still calling for a study on the possibility of imposing a digital majority, which could make it that people of a certain age can’t join a social network.
They cited the example of France, where young people under the age of 15 require parental authorization to sign up for a social network.
“The idea of creating a digital age of majority at 14 or 15 to access social networks must be studied in Quebec,” argued the PQ leader, who proposes setting up a parliamentary commission to look into the issue between now and the start of the next school year.
Last week, St-Pierre Plamondon questioned Premier François Legault directly on the subject in the National Assembly, and Legault brushed off the idea.
“Well, did I just hear the leader of the PQ tell us, ‘We should ban social media for children under 14?’ Is that what he just said? Did I hear that right? Is that his suggestion?” said Legault.
In the past, the premier has also called on parents to limit their children’s screen time.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews