Seine-Port, a village of fewer than 2,000 people around an hour’s drive from Paris, backed the measure in a local referendum earlier this month, The Guardian reports.

A first-of-its-kind municipal decree will set out the expectation that people will abstain from scrolling on their devices while on the streets or in local businesses – though it does not propose any means of enforcing the rules.

Local families will also be offered free ‘dumb phones’ for their children if they sign an agreement not to buy them a smartphone before they turn 15.

Vincent Paul-Petit, the Les Républicains mayor of Seine-Port, said: “I want to preserve public spaces from the smartphone invasion.

“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.

“This is about the addiction element of smartphones, whether games or social networks, when we can no longer tear our eyes from the screens.”

He added: “We’ll encourage a baker or butcher not to serve someone who comes in scrolling on their phone: if they’re having a conversation on their phone, they can finish it outside, then come in and say hello.”