CESSY, France -- A wonderful thing has happened. During a recent house renovation, one of our satellite dishes for receiving most non-English European and Middle Eastern networks broke. We lost nearly 2,000 channels, including Cartoon Network and a few other brainless children’s stations. We decided not to replace it. More recently, the remote for our free-to-air satellite (Astra2D) for the BBC, ITV and other British channels also broke. We suddenly realized that the children, 9 and 15, were really not that interested in watching TV. They preferred to read, explore the internet, take in the occasional DVD, or do things outdoors. We’re now wondering whether we can even be bothered to buy a new sat box. Do we really need TV in our lives? And, well, what about a good book or even, dare one say it, a newspaper?

The only television my nine-year-old is obsessed with is Dr Who, but also certain documentaries, such as the BBC's Planet Earth, which he watches with almost hypnotic fascination. My daughter is more interested in reading novels, watching DVDs or downloaded TV series on her computer and SMS messaging or talking on the phone with her friends.

Neither my wife nor I watch much TV. The good TV series such as House or Desperate Housewives (yes, I do like the latter), we download off the internet or buy the DVDs.

In the end, you only watch a couple of satellite channels anyway. And much of it is not worth watching, including, increasingly, the BBC.  The British public broadcaster seems to be embracing steadily lowest common denominator levels. It  is looking more and more like American mainstream television which became unwatchable years ago. Whenever I go to the States, I find myself listening to the BBC world service radio or National Public Radio, sometimes even on shortwave. I often feel better informed in some godforsaken part of Africa or Asian crisis zone than in New York or Los Angeles. Interesting to note, though: radio listening in the US is going up, while TV viewing is dropping albeit primarily as a result of internet competition. 

The strongest argument for keeping TV in our household is to watch the news. However, as a journalist I prefer to listen to this on internet or digital radio anyway. Obviously, we don't want to cut off our kids completely from access to good television programmes, be they crime series, documentaries  or children’s shows, which the BBC or German TV are good at doing. But no one really seems to miss it, so why not simply opt out?

As a child in the States, I was allowed to watch one hour of TV a week - The Three Stooges - but I did sneak over to the neighbours to dote on their sets whenever I could. And when I went to boarding school in the UK, the only permitted TV was Monty Python, which is perhaps one reason why so many Brits cultivate such extremes of eccentricity. When I finally did have the option to watch TV, I watched a lot, but then gradually considered most of it too inane or tedious to waste one's life in front of a screen.   

So, in the age of internet and rapidly expanding multimedia platforms, my family and I are rediscovering the joys of reading, not just books, but also newspapers and magazines. We’ve always read a lot. All too often, however, the publications pile up, so by not sitting in front of a TV we may have more time to read.

The challenge now is to ensure that our kids learn not just how to read information, but to discern it and check out a multitude of different sources. They need to understand that one should not necessarily trust what one reads or sees, particularly on the internet. This is where the schools, but also the newspaper publishing companies, are falling down. They are forgetting to teach kids how read what really affects their lives, such as climate change, conflict prevention and more sustainable development, both now and later.

But all is not lost. The French seem to have come up a remarkable solution for galvanizing a new whole generation of readers: Les Quotidiens. These are a series of daily youth newspapers specifically designed for different age groups and which require no more than ten minutes a day.

The first is the Petit Quotidien for 6-9 year olds; Mon Quotidien for 9-12 year-olds and L’Actu for high school students. French teachers surreptitiously recommend the newspapers, but are officially not allowed to do so for reasons of commercial promotion. But who cares. The Quotidiens are a remarkable product which every young person should read.

Sadly, I have yet to see anything like it in the UK or North America. My nine-year-old, who goes to the local French school but speaks English at home, avidly awaits the arrival of his Mon Quotidien by opening the mail box whenever he gets home. This is a remarkable kids’ newspaper for keeping up with the world. The publication comes out five times a week and consists of eight pages full of stories, graphics, photos, cartoons, facts and figures. It costs 0.46 euros a day – the publishers also offer introductory deals – and it's worth every cent and more. A good investment for the future. And a good way to improve one's French, too.

Today’s Mon Quotidian, for example, has a frontpage story about a French school class at the 15th annual youth parliament who want to create - ironically - a television for children. There are also frontpage headlines and pictures with stories on the inside about a helicopter rescue operation on the Seine near Paris and another about saving elephants in Malawi. A factoid notes that 37% of under-14-year-olds in the United States listen to Ipods. On the inside, full of graphics and illustratory boxes, is an explanation of how parliaments work, plus highlights of select TV programmes, such as Arte’s Jurassic Fight Club about archaeology.

Our son, a true outdoor kid, also enthusiastically subscribes to Discovery Box, a monthly 56-page English-language magazine highlighting one particular cover story (this month is about the secrets of 3D film animation) but also a host of other stories, illustrated briefs, quizzes and games ranging from what lives in a lake, the discoveries of Charles Darwin and how to make a pirate’s hook. It is an absolute pleasure to watch him devour these publications rather than sit like some dodo in front of the TV.

Our 15-year-old, who is trilingual and goes to the International Lycee, reads her L’Actu with somewhat less enthusiasm (it's not cool, of course, to have current events shoved down your throat by your parents), but she does appear to appreciate it. All too often, however, it is simply a matter of time.  The amount of homework she has is massive. The French seem determined to ensure that school kids learn nothing outside their curriculum. Her school day starts at 6.00 in the morning – bus at 7.00 – and she is not back until 6.00 in the evening. And then she has several hours of homework. We tried a trial subscription with Le Monde, but the Paris lead paper was pretty heavy-going. And not just for teenagers. 

We now have an International Herald Tribune subscription for everyone in the house. This is also for our nephew from Texas who is interning with an international organization and suddenly realizing that his European counterparts have a far better grasp of global history and events. "We learn nothing in our schools," he complained. He now reads the paper every day and listens to the BBC when on over breakfast although he used to listen to NPR every day back home while working at a local pizzeria. So he was already aware of the need to know.

As far as I am concerned, as long as there are varied sources of information on what is happening in the world, then all that’s good.

My main gripe, however, is that when we travel there is really little worth buying for kids at airport or railway news kiosks. Regardless whether in Europe or North America. So much of it is trivial rubbish, so it’s no surprise that young people on both sides of the Atlantic are losing interest in reading. The newspapers, magazines and distributors really need to pull their fingers out if they want to stimulate new readers, whether in print or on the internet.They only have themselves to blame if they collapse. We have always ignored the schools where, to my mind, we need to cultivate critical reading and curiousity.

Kids really deserve better, but there seems to be a deliberate effort by the distributors – Relay in Switzerland – to focus on the highly commercial operators putting out those costly airhead kiddie and teen mags promoting Hollywood films and facial creams. Anything of quality seems steadfastly kept off the shelves. This is also where publishing corporations need to work more closely with schools. They need to help kids develop a taste for reading, and for reading critically as a basic democratic responsibiity.

Of course, the only way to respond to this is by subscribing on your own and ensuring that your kids take their reading along when they leave the home. Or you wait for the day when wireless internet access is freely available so that one at least has mobile access to stimulating and thought provoking  information whenever one travels.

Edward Girardet, a former foreign correspondent, is a Geneva-based writer and journalist struggling for a more independent and informed society.