What city has banned scrolling on your smartphone in public?

One French city has had enough of people looking at their smartphones in public. Seine-Port, in the Seine-et-Marne area south of Paris, recently voted 54 percent in favor of a referendum to ban people from scrolling on their devices while out in public.

This applies not only while out on the sidewalk or sitting on a public bench but also in shops, cafes or restaurants, and it includes both adults and children. Since there’s no such ban at the national level it can’t be enforced by police, but the city is urging shopkeepers to put up signs in their windows and encourage their patrons to follow the rules. “I want to preserve public spaces from the smartphone invasion,” said Mayor Vincent Paul-Petit. “It’s not about banning all phones, it’s about proposing that people abstain from getting out their smartphones to scroll social media, play a game or watch videos in public places, which we want to preserve for social life.”

Not all are in favor, though, particularly among younger generations for whom smartphones have always been a part of their lives. “There’s not much else to do — if you ban phones, you’d have to put in place real structures for young people’s leisure, sports and games,” said one 21-year-old resident. Said a 17-year-old: “Smartphones are such an important part of our lives that I don’t think it’s possible to restrict them in the street.”