Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Social Media, Not Phones, Get Kids Addicted

Banning the devices in France's schools is a bad idea.

December 18, 2017 at 6:15 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Gateway drug?
Photographer: Patrick Hertzog/AFP/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

I'm a recovering smartphone addict, so you might expect me to welcome the French government's decision to ban the devices in primary and middle schools.

Actually, I don't: The problem is the software, not the phones themselves.