Adult-only hotels, campsites and restaurants could face prosecution in France under a government plan to crack down on a “no-kids” movement that it says poses a threat to society.

The move comes amid an anguished debate over what some observers say is mounting intolerance towards children in a country that is already facing a falling birthrate.

Sarah El Haïry, the high commissioner for childhood, said the “no-kids trend” amounted to “violence against children”.

Her target is not couples who decide to remain childless, but adults who do not want to be disturbed by other people’s children.

Those who complain about noisy children on trains, for instance, were spreading the “idea that children are a nuisance” and putting unacceptable pressure on parents to keep them quiet, she said. “That’s why you put your son or daughter in front of a cartoon on a train.”

El Haïry told RFI, the French international radio station: “A child shouts, laughs and moves … we are institutionalising the idea that silence is a luxury and the absence of children is a luxury.”The commissioner said government lawyers were assessing the feasibility of taking legal action against establishments that refused children altogether.A growing number of hotels in France advertise themselves as “adult-only”, such as the €334-a-night Saint-Delis in Honfleur, Normandy, which promises guests an “ever more exclusive and peaceful experience” with “absolute relaxation”. Some campsites, like Camp Laurent in southwest France, have similar criteria, as do a handful of restaurants. The “adult-only” Saint-Delis hotel in HonfleurCritics of the trend fear that France will follow the example of Belgium, where one in ten restaurants now ban children, according to Paris Match magazine.The campaign against adult-only establishments is being led by Laurence Rossignol, a socialist senator, who plans to introduce a private member’s bill making it illegal to ban children from establishments such as hotels.“It is without doubt a discrimination,” she told RMC radio. “It is a sign of intolerance in our societies. It is the ultimate stage of a society in which children have disappeared from collective space because they are considered too noisy or turbulent.”Laurence RossignolKENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/GETTY IMAGESSome lawyers say there is no need for her bill because they argue that adult-only sites are already illegal under a law prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of “origin, gender, family situation or age”.El Haïry, for her part, said she was bringing together tourist and travel industry executives on Tuesday to encourage them to adopt a “pro-kids” policy, with spaces specifically designed for children.Proponents of child-free zones say they have become necessary because children are increasingly unruly, largely as a result of the positive parenting movement that has taken hold in recent decades. Some argue that if parents went back to inflicting punishments on their offspring, the problem would be partly resolved.Grégoire Borst, professor of development psychology and educational cognitive neuroscience at Paris Cité university, disagreed.“People fantasise about a past in which children were as good as gold,” Borst told the HuffPost website. He said it was “absolutely not” true.“It’s totally normal for children to speak loudly, to want to move and to run and to have difficulty regulating their emotions.”