Tokyo: A Japanese city encourages all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day out of work or school under a suggested ordinance that does not include sanctions.
The limit – which will be recommended to all residents of central Japan’s Toyoake City – will not be binding and there will be no sanctions held for higher use, according to the draft regulation.
The proposal aims to prevent excessive use of units causing physical and mental health problems … including sleep problems, “Mayor Masafumi Koki said in a statement Friday.
The draft encourages students to primary school students to avoid smartphones after 1 p.m. 21.00, and junior high students and older are advised not to use them after 7 p.m. 22.00.
The move got an online setback where many called the plan unrealistic.
“I understand their intention, but the two -hour limit is impossible,” wrote a user on Social Media Platform X.
“In two hours I can’t even read a book or watch a movie (on my smartphone),” wrote another.
Others said the smartphone use should be a decision for families to take themselves.
The angry answer prompted the mayor to clarify that the two -hour limit was not mandatory, emphasizing that the guidelines “recognize smartphones are useful and can be mourned in everyday life”.
The regulation is considered next week and if adopted, it will take effect in October.
By 2020, the Western Kagawa region issued a first-of-s kind of ordinance that called for children to be limited to an hour of games during the week and 90 minutes during the school holidays.
It also suggested that children aged 12 to 15 should not be allowed to use smartphones later than at. 21.00, where the limit rose to 22:00 for children between the ages of 15 and 18.
Japanese youth spends on average just over five hours a day online on weekdays, according to a study published in March by Children and Family’s Agency.
