Recent research shows that children - and their parents - are spending more and more time in front of screens: 36 hours a week on average in France. Photographer Jérôme Gence's latest project "The screen generation" explores the use of devices and the consequences.
For three years, photojournalist Jérôme Gence, who is also a freelance data analyst, focused on the use of screens by children in France and in Nepal and India.
He visited children and parents' in their homes, met a psychologist treating addiction to screens, went to a helpine center in charge of cyberbullying and to a hospital in Toulouse using digital technologies to reduce pain for hospitalised children.
His photos series "The screen generation" was shown at Visa pour l'image festival in Perpignan.
RFI: What is your project 'The screen generation' about?
Jérôme Gence: I try to explain the success of the digital world today for kids, and I think the answer is, in the real world, what are the values we're passing on to the next generation?
Another point is that we give so much power to only a few tech companies in the world, which belong to investors and those investors collect data.
And the main target, I will say is the kids and the next generation, because they're going to be the adults of tomorrow.
I think we are facing a time bomb for billions of kids and for the next generation.
RFI: What was the reaction of the parents when you asked them about their children using the screens, smartphones etc.?
JG: During this photo story, I didn't meet any parents who said 'I want my kids to be connected as much as possible'.
I met parents who said 'I feel powerless because if I give my kids those devices, I lose control. But if I don't give them a device, they're going to be excluded from society'.
The word ‘device’ is really important because it's not only about smartphones or tablets. It's about how the screen today surrounds the lives of children.
A psychologist specialised in addictions that I met for this project told me that 'to understand the behavior of the kids, you have to understand the addiction of the parents.'
Also, a few days ago, I was in an ice cream store. To order an ice cream, you first order it on a screen and then talk to a human being to say 'this is the flavour that I want'.
So we are putting a screen as an interface between two human beings.
To me, this is a kind of human trafficking to the next generation.
RFI: This topic is complex, what can be done?
JG: I think we have to talk about it first and we have to bring education. And education also comes with regulations.
I think education is the key but the problem is today even in education, we are giving so much power to the digital, to the screen, just by the fact that the screens in the short term are going to help the kids.
It was so complex to do this project because you have different issues according to the countries.
The issues aren't the same in Nepal, in India, and for developing countries in general compared to rich countries.
