We CAN act to reduce the damage screens do to our children

Beginning in infancy, children around the world spend an inordinate amount of time with screens. In the United States, 37% of babies under two watch television every day. On any given day, those who watch average almost one and a half hours. In Australia, 40% of 18-month-old babies spend more than two hours a day with screens. In 2014, an international study of 9 to 11-year-olds found that they spend an average of 2.6 hours a day with screens, with children in Brazil spending the most time (3.5 hours) and children in India spending the least (1.8 hours)¹. On average, preschool children in the United Kingdom spend more than four hours a day with screens, including television, online media and games.  In early adolescence, that number rises to about seven hours per day².

Developmental and health problems

These hours become more worrisome as evidence accumulates about  the addictive properties of digital media^{3 4}.  A 2018 literature review in the journal Environmental Research identified several evidence-based, child-related concerns about addiction to video games, social media and the internet.  New brain imaging techniques suggest that screen technologies can change the actual architecture of the brain⁵.

Excessive screen time is a factor in a host of problems for children and adolescents.  For children younger than two, it’s a factor in delaying language development^{6 7}.

Time with television and digital media are linked to childhood obesity⁸ as well as sleep disturbances from infancy to adolescence^{9 10}. For teenagers, time with social media is correlated with depression and anxiety¹¹.

In addition, much of the content children encounter on screens can be harmful. Video game violence is a risk factor for increased aggression¹². Viewing sexualised media can cause body dissatisfaction in girls as young as five¹³.  Children’s exposure to advertising contributes to the acquisition of materialistic values — the belief that the things we buy will make us happy¹⁴.

A role for governments?

Evidence of harm, or potential harm, points to the need for policies that protect children from overuse.  Government regulations can prevent media and tech companies from marketing directly to children, require that they provide evidence for educational claims, and hold them accountable for potential harms.

Governments can’t, and shouldn’t, legislate when, whether, and how parents expose children to screen technologies. They can, however, fund training programmes for health professionals, educators, and child development specialists to provide parents with evidence-based guidance about the potential benefits and harms of children’s time — and on how to set limits.

Concerns about the impact of screen technology on children — including the marketing it purveys so well — has for too long been the purview of concerned parents and a relatively small cadre of advocates. But that’s no longer the case.

Critique from industry – and investors

Today, public critiques of tech companies come from within the industry, citing concerns that the seductive, purposefully addictive products they create are hurting children. Two of Apple’s major investors are publicly urging the company to help parents to reduce children’s screen time. Concerned tech innovators and creators recently launched the Center for Humane Technology. In their own words, they’re taking a stand because “what started as a race to monetise our attention is now eroding the pillars of our society: mental health, democracy, social relationships, mental health, and our children”. It’s no accident that when Steve Jobs was asked what his kids thought of the iPad, he said: “They’ve never seen one.”

Love of the analogue 

The way to help children flourish in the digital age is to ensure that they develop a solid grounding in, and love for, the analogue world. They need time to form powerfully deep attachments to people and connections with the rest of the natural world. To develop a healthy sense of themselves children need satisfying experiences unmediated by digital devices. They need to explore with all of their senses, and have chances to become bored enough to generate their own amusements and interests.

Proponents of a laisser-faire approach to children’s use of technology argue that we live in anti-regulatory times. Yet social movements have a long history of changing entrenched policies. They say that it’s impossible to help parents reduce children’s screen time, and all that can be done is to create ‘good’ media content. Yet research shows that interventions can help to reduce children’s screen time¹⁵.

It’s not going to be easy to stop tech and media companies from hijacking children. But given what’s at stake it’s essential that we try.

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Harvard psychiatrist and founder of the Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood.

drsusanlinn