The French government is planning to crack down on venues that ban children, triggering a wider debate in the country about the rights and wrongs of 'adult-only' facilities.
Under recent proposals set out by the government, hotels, campsites and restaurants could face prosecution if they offer adult-only services.
In an interview with French radio station RFI, French MP Sarah El Haïry, the high commissioner for children, argued the trend for adult-only venues amounted to “violence against children” and condemned them as “foreign trend”.
“A child shouts, laughs and moves...we are institutionalising the idea that silence is a luxury and the absence of children is a luxury,” El Haïry said. Government lawyers are reportedly examining whether it would be possible to take legal action against establishments that ban children.
Adult-only hotels started cropping up in exclusive Caribbean resorts in the 1970s. Since then, they have become fairly common across the tourist industry.
Travel company Kuoni advertises its adult-only hotels as “holidays with peace guaranteed”. Last year, Dutch airline Corenden announced it would reserve the front rows of its Amsterdam-Curação flights for passengers aged over 16.
Adult-only venues in Belgium
Parts of the French media seem to regard Belgium as the epicentre of the adult-only trend, with a number of news outlets expressing shock over the number of restaurants in Belgium which do not accept children. Critics fear France will follow Belgium's example.
In 2023, TF1 produced a report entitled Ces restaurants belges qui refusent les enfants (‘The Belgian restaurants which don’t accept children’) which looked into the phenomenon of adult-only venues in Belgium.
According to the report, which cited figures from the hospitality industry, one in 10 Belgian restaurants refuse to accept children.
TF1 interviewed a restaurant manager in Ostend, who said:“I don’t have anything against children, but for us, it’s more pleasant [without them].”
Enforcing an adult-only policy isn’t illegal under Belgian law, as long as the restaurant owner gives a legitimate reason for doing so.
The issue has generated a lot of controversy here over the years. In 2008, there was a fierce debate in the Walloon Parliament on the subject of adults-only holidays.
During the discussion, one deputy said an adults-only policy amounted to “social segregation”.
“We are all familiar with the infamous segregation based on skin colour or religion,” said Eliane de Tillieux, former president of the Chamber of Representatives. “Today, exclusion because you are or aren't a child seems to be taking over.”
Last year, a restaurant in Ixelles came under fire for banning children under 12. The restaurant’s owner said staff were “not there to educate children”, adding that “some parents let their children behave as if they were on a playground.”
‘We’ve always been made to feel welcome’
Is Belgium’s reputation for being child unfriendly merited? Not according to the parents who we spoke to. After all, even if one in 10 Belgian restaurants don’t welcome children, 90% of them do accept children, leaving parents with plenty of choice.
Melissa, 48, who lives in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, has two children aged 15 and 12. “We went to restaurants with the kids quite a lot when they were young, and we’ve always been made to feel welcome in Belgium,” said Melissa.
One young mother from Schaerbeek said that while her 10-month-old daughter is still young, upscale restaurants wouldn’t be high on her list of places to eat in.
She said she and her husband would be more inclined to seek out restaurants with a designated area for kids, rather than the fine dining restaurants that tend to enforce adult-only policies.
She has not encountered any problems when eating out with her baby in Brussels. “We sometimes go to restaurants for lunch on the weekend and so far, we have had positive experiences,” she said. “For the moment all restaurants have to offer to us is a baby chair and most of them have had it.”
