The mayor of a French village tried to ban smartphones in public. Now he fears voters will throw him out of office

In a sleepy village just outside Paris, the local Mayor is handing out brick phones to a crowd of bemused teenagers.

Last year, residents of Seine-Port voted in a referendum to ban smartphone use in public. The decision was driven by a noble cause: to wrestle villagers young and old away from devices that increasingly consume every minute of their daily lives.