I'm a medical student (currently doing a rotation in child and adolescent psychiatry as it happens) and a parent of two school-age kids, and my understanding of the evidence is that screens are not a problem in and of themselves, but (as you allude to in your write-up) screen time can displace time that would otherwise be spent reading or running around outside with other kids. It's only harmful if it's taking the place of the things that kids need for healthy development, so if you control for those things, any effect of screen time disappears.
This has been a common subject in our house. And we often say if the kids would get outside for a bit on weekends that we wouldn't feel so weird about giving them more screen time. But it's when they'd rather do screens than ANYTHING ELSE, and their days seem to revolve around that, that we pause. But we try to be mindful of our own family stuff, mainly my cancer treatment these last 16 months. That definitely adds a whole layer to this discussion.
One issue to note is this study is on children 9-12 which means maybe it doesnt affect there but the study you linked too about lowering development is 3-5 a radically different developmental group and stage. So sure maybe once they're 9 it's totally fine but unless they run the same study with different age cohorts that's as far as I'd stretch it never mind. anecdotal discussion of how younger children can show an addictive and detrimental response to screentime.
My belief has always been to allow screen time as long as I can curate what they watch.
Some cartoons get our kids way more excited and nervous than others. It's often linked to pacing and sound. And as a long time animation fan, it's also usually the worse ones in term of quality, either in writing, graphics, or animation. We ban those and they are ok with it.
They agree because there is enough variety on streaming services that they still have a long list of quality shows and movies they love watching. And it's generally the ones I enjoy watching with them in my arms. Even if it's for the hundreth time...
Well this confirms my priors, so I’m happy to hear it! /s
But really, it does make sense that the screens themselves are likely not intrinsically harmful, but more the behavioral patterns they impact.
From the sidelines in Education, it seems that the more directly harmful thing is unrestrained access to YouTube, et al. Iirc there is a “YouTube Kids” app, in your experience does this work well? I often think of the factoid that children’s TV has a lot of regulation on it in various countries, meaning the content has to meet certain standards of “not harmful” – standards that YouTube has no incentive nor legal obligation to meet. It seems an impossible task for a parent to vet EVERY channel or piece of online media kids encounter, but at the same time it’s hard to trust tools granted by the same companies who profit off the downward spiral of toy unboxing and reaction videos.
I think the biggest concern is more on what children are missing out of, not necessarily what the screens are putting in. With too much screen time, kids miss out on social interactions, creative play, untethered imagination time, and motor skill development (especially for youngsters). For my family, it is also about boundaries and teaching our kids balance, as well as recognizing and being able to walk away from certain activities they may want to overdue (again, in balance with responsibilities and other activities).
While it's true that anything can be abused and have a negative effect on people, I think it's fair to say that phones and tablets are different than many of the other challenges we face as parents, in ways that are more addictive and personal.
One thing I think the study fails to address (which was probably out of scope for it) is the negative effects of social media on teens. This is primarily about development. But I can't help but be cautious about waiving all screen time limits and not factoring into how addicting social media (and getting likes/attention) can be. And how many teens end up depressed by their addiction to social media. Not to mention the bullying that often happens there. Which is why we forbid any social media for our teen. And we've talked so poorly about it that he has no desire to be on it. :)
But I guess you really have to try and separate the developmental part from the addiction part as they get older. And why it's so crucial that parents know what their kids are consuming on any device they have access to.
Thanks, I requested your thoughts on this earlier, and this helps! We’ve been following the advice to keep screen time at a consistent time and setting clear limits, and I also curate what he watches and plays with--so far, it doesn’t seem to be presenting any behavioral challenges. I wanted to build these expectations/limits in early AND I’m really excited to show him stuff that I think he’ll love--plus I’m a digital artist and we’re a gamer family! I suppose when people say they don’t let their kids have any screen time at all, it made me anxious that I’m doing something wrong. 😅
I feel that a lot recent panic came from a NYT article about 5 years that talked about how a bunch of tech workers in Silicon Valley didn’t want their kids use screens and tech they helped created. While I get why that caused people to freak out, looking back at it now, it seems we probably gave SV too much credit. The people there are not as smart as they’d like us to believe, are way to nihilistic and easily prone to groupthink, and the whole screen thing was an example of that
I'm a medical student (currently doing a rotation in child and adolescent psychiatry as it happens) and a parent of two school-age kids, and my understanding of the evidence is that screens are not a problem in and of themselves, but (as you allude to in your write-up) screen time can displace time that would otherwise be spent reading or running around outside with other kids. It's only harmful if it's taking the place of the things that kids need for healthy development, so if you control for those things, any effect of screen time disappears.
This has been a common subject in our house. And we often say if the kids would get outside for a bit on weekends that we wouldn't feel so weird about giving them more screen time. But it's when they'd rather do screens than ANYTHING ELSE, and their days seem to revolve around that, that we pause. But we try to be mindful of our own family stuff, mainly my cancer treatment these last 16 months. That definitely adds a whole layer to this discussion.
One issue to note is this study is on children 9-12 which means maybe it doesnt affect there but the study you linked too about lowering development is 3-5 a radically different developmental group and stage. So sure maybe once they're 9 it's totally fine but unless they run the same study with different age cohorts that's as far as I'd stretch it never mind. anecdotal discussion of how younger children can show an addictive and detrimental response to screentime.
My belief has always been to allow screen time as long as I can curate what they watch.
Some cartoons get our kids way more excited and nervous than others. It's often linked to pacing and sound. And as a long time animation fan, it's also usually the worse ones in term of quality, either in writing, graphics, or animation. We ban those and they are ok with it.
They agree because there is enough variety on streaming services that they still have a long list of quality shows and movies they love watching. And it's generally the ones I enjoy watching with them in my arms. Even if it's for the hundreth time...
Well this confirms my priors, so I’m happy to hear it! /s
But really, it does make sense that the screens themselves are likely not intrinsically harmful, but more the behavioral patterns they impact.
From the sidelines in Education, it seems that the more directly harmful thing is unrestrained access to YouTube, et al. Iirc there is a “YouTube Kids” app, in your experience does this work well? I often think of the factoid that children’s TV has a lot of regulation on it in various countries, meaning the content has to meet certain standards of “not harmful” – standards that YouTube has no incentive nor legal obligation to meet. It seems an impossible task for a parent to vet EVERY channel or piece of online media kids encounter, but at the same time it’s hard to trust tools granted by the same companies who profit off the downward spiral of toy unboxing and reaction videos.
Thank you for linking the study directly. I really appreciate it, and it's a great practice lots of folks don't do.
I think the biggest concern is more on what children are missing out of, not necessarily what the screens are putting in. With too much screen time, kids miss out on social interactions, creative play, untethered imagination time, and motor skill development (especially for youngsters). For my family, it is also about boundaries and teaching our kids balance, as well as recognizing and being able to walk away from certain activities they may want to overdue (again, in balance with responsibilities and other activities).
While it's true that anything can be abused and have a negative effect on people, I think it's fair to say that phones and tablets are different than many of the other challenges we face as parents, in ways that are more addictive and personal.
One thing I think the study fails to address (which was probably out of scope for it) is the negative effects of social media on teens. This is primarily about development. But I can't help but be cautious about waiving all screen time limits and not factoring into how addicting social media (and getting likes/attention) can be. And how many teens end up depressed by their addiction to social media. Not to mention the bullying that often happens there. Which is why we forbid any social media for our teen. And we've talked so poorly about it that he has no desire to be on it. :)
But I guess you really have to try and separate the developmental part from the addiction part as they get older. And why it's so crucial that parents know what their kids are consuming on any device they have access to.
Thanks, I requested your thoughts on this earlier, and this helps! We’ve been following the advice to keep screen time at a consistent time and setting clear limits, and I also curate what he watches and plays with--so far, it doesn’t seem to be presenting any behavioral challenges. I wanted to build these expectations/limits in early AND I’m really excited to show him stuff that I think he’ll love--plus I’m a digital artist and we’re a gamer family! I suppose when people say they don’t let their kids have any screen time at all, it made me anxious that I’m doing something wrong. 😅
I feel that a lot recent panic came from a NYT article about 5 years that talked about how a bunch of tech workers in Silicon Valley didn’t want their kids use screens and tech they helped created. While I get why that caused people to freak out, looking back at it now, it seems we probably gave SV too much credit. The people there are not as smart as they’d like us to believe, are way to nihilistic and easily prone to groupthink, and the whole screen thing was an example of that