Screen Time & Children

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Screen Child silhouette
(mohamed_hassan, Pixabay)

Screen Baby
(geralt, Pixabay)

Bicycle Boys
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Screen Sunset
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Screen Time & Children

Perhaps the most important question for parents is "Who do you want to raise your children?"
You may know quality time is great, but that quantity time is also crucial. So, you can have all this desire to be a hands-on parent.
But parenting is extremely undervalued in our society. There is no money or glory. Instead of being hands-on, we are forced into other life demands like work.
To really be successful in caring parenting, society needs to change - see here and here. Until then, stop feeling guilty and do your best!

Did you know that modern screens are one contributor to the earlier onset of puberty? Their blue light disrupts the brain's melatonin system not only affecting healthy sleep patterns but also producing premature puberty. Other factors are obesity and man-made chemicals in plastics/cosmetics/pesticides/etc. (BBC, posted 5 January 2018, accessed 13 January 2018).

Some tips:-

No screens before age two.
No screens in bedrooms.
Screen time ends at least one hour before bedtime.
Use a blue-light reducing program like f.lux to avoid disturbing natural sleep cycles and to avoid overearly puberty. Yet research shows this may not be needed.
Consistency of all this across multiple homes. In other words, all carers must do similar.
Try earning or balancing TV/video game/social media time with: time spent in physical activity, nature, 'serving others' (seva). (Partly inspired by Dr Robert Lustig)
You must try to model the behaviour which you want to see! Do you exercise and spend time in nature and hang out with real non-digital people?

Baby with laptop in front of question-mark covered blackboard

Positives to Screen Time & Children

'All the evidence suggests young people are increasingly shunning the unhealthy behaviours of previous generations. Not only are they less likely to smoke, they drink less, take drugs less and socialise less. The reason? Research suggests they have exchanged the traditional vices for social media and gaming.' (BBC, posted and accessed 29 March 2019)

Two young boys on bicycles. They are at a standstill. One is on his smartphone. The other is not.

Tech has helped young people reduce vices like smoking, drinking, drugs.
But have youth also relinquished healthy activities like nature, outdoors, face-to-face life?

Resources

Center for Humane Technology [Take control of your phone!].
Smartphone Free Childhood [UK].
Watching TV 'is bad for children' (BBC, 2004).
Limit children's screen time, expert urges (BBC, 2012).
Screentime and Arrested Social Development (Victoria Dunckley, MD, Psychology Today, 2016).
Why adolescence is lasting twice as long as it did in the 1950s (BBC, 2018).
Is social media causing childhood depression? (BBC, 2018).
The trouble knowing how much screen time is 'too much' (BBC, 2018). [It's tricky, like judging sugar intake, when there's so many types of sugar/body/people].
Tips on how to limit excessive screen time (BBC, 2019).
Video Chats and Screen Time with Toddlers (Zero to Three, Peggy O'Mara, 2019).
Virtual reality shoes are exhausting to use (BBC, 2019) [Perhaps this will be a way to ensure physical activity happens with screen time. Another way I have seen is a gaming set-up only powered by rowing.].
Screen time 'may harm toddlers' (BBC, 2019) [Study also covered here].
Screen time: Children advised not to use electronic devices at dinner (BBC, 2019).
Screen-Free Week... (Peggy O'Mara, 2019).
Social-media use 'disrupting teen sleep and exercise' (BBC, 2019) [Avoid fretting about screen time; rather emphasise sleep and physical exercise].
Playing video games doesn't lead to violent behaviour, study shows (The Guardian, 2020).
If you’re going to put your preschooler in front of a screen, choose a TV. Here’s why, The Guardian, 2021) [TV associated with less attention problems than a tablet. TV offers more "serve and return interactions", i.e. more human-to human exchanges.].
Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen (Johann Hari, The Guardian, 2022) [Social media and modern life are destroying our ability to concentrate. Rebel to reclaim our minds while we still can. This is a systemic issue!].
Now we know for sure that big tech peddles despair, we must protect ourselves (Zoe Williams, The Guardian, 2022).
‘It’s tough for parents’: should young children have their own phone? (Esther Addley, The Guardian, 2023).
YouTube found to push content about guns to children watching games videos (The Guardian, 2023) [YouTube’s recommendation algorithm at fault].
I’m a teacher – and this is why I’m not giving my son a smartphone yet (Lola Okolosie, The Guardian, 2023).
‘Much easier to say no’: Irish town unites in smartphone ban for young children (The Guardian, 2023) [Till secondary school = age 12. Also see here.].
Social media could be as harmful to children as smoking or gambling – why is this allowed? (Prof Devi Sridhar, The Guardian, 2023) [Regulation needed].

Many young hands hold up their smartphones, as when they use them. The screens are blank...

‘Put learners first’: Unesco calls for global ban on smartphones in schools (The Guardian, 2023) [Major UN report issues warning over excessive use, with one in four countries already banning the devices].
If you really want kids to spend less time online, make space for them in the real world (Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian, 2024) [Tech firms can do more, but it’s the government’s job to ensure children have safe places to play].
The Guardian view on smartphones and children: a compelling case for action (The Guardian, 2024) [Regulating new technology is never simple, but the status quo offers inadequate protection. Curtail access, as with weapons, alcohol, porn?].
MPs urge under-16s UK smartphone ban and statutory ban in schools (The Guardian, 2024).
I’m an expert on adolescence: here’s why a smartphone ban isn’t the answer, and what we should do instead (Lucy Foulkes, The Guardian, 2024).
Smartphones are not the biggest problem facing teenagers (Letters, The Guardian, 2024).
‘We wanted to change the norm on smartphone use’: grassroots campaigners on a phone-free childhood (Alex Moshakis, The Guardian, 2024) [UK's Smartphone Free Childhood].
Norway to increase minimum age limit on social media to 15 to protect children (The Guardian, 2024).
Is doom scrolling really rotting our brains? The evidence is getting harder to ignore (Siân Boyle, The Guardian, 2024) [In 2004, the average attention span on any screen was 2½ minutes. In 2012, it was 75 seconds. In 2018, only 47 seconds.].
Smartphones should carry health warning, Spanish government told (The Guardian, 2024).
If you’ve got children, you need to watch Swiped – and see how sick their phones are making them (Simon Jenkins, The Guardian, 2024) [The terrible toll that smartphones are taking on young people is now undeniable. We need to start talking about a ban. Fear of missing out is the most potent of social toxins. The smartphone has the kind of hold over minds as young as nine or 10 that alcohol and drugs can have over adults. A technology so long eulogised is now dissolving the bonds that should be at the heart of a child’s family and friendship relations. Smartphones must sooner or later be universally banned for young people under 16, with the same ferocity as are cigarettes, drugs and knives.].
Children under six should avoid screen time, French medical experts say (The Guardian, 2025) [TV, tablets and smartphones ‘hinder and alter brain development’].
Children limiting own smartphone use to manage mental health, survey finds (The Guardian, 2025).
What screen time does to children's brains is more complicated than it seems (BBC, 2025).
I’ve seen how big tech has transformed the classroom – and parents are right to be worried (Dr Velislava Hillman, The Guardian, 2025).
Parents, don’t panic over porn! Here’s how to have an age-appropriate and shame-free talk with your kids (Jess Melendez, The Guardian, 2025).
Set controls and teach privacy: how to manage your child’s first mobile phone (The Guardian, 2025).

A smartphone is set diagonally into beach sand. It is taking a photo of a sunset.

Also see:-

Violence in Movies & Computer Games

Electromagnetic Radiation & Children

Effective Communication & Children

Women & Failure

Success for Society

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