creen time” should be limited to two hours a day for children ages 3-18 and those 2 years old and younger should not have any at all.
The sixth-graders who made up the sample in the UCLA study reported that they spent an average of more than four hours on a typical schools day on their phones, watching television and playing video games.
Some research suggest that screen time has a lot of negative effects on kids, ranging from childhood obesity and irregular sleep patterns to social and/or behavioral issues.
Greenfield states, “We really need to be sure that children, and probably older people, are getting enough face-to-face interaction to be competent social beings. Our species evolved in an environment where there was only face-to-face interaction. Since we were adapted to that environment, it’s likely that our skills depend on that environment. If we reduce face-to-face interaction drastically, it’s not surprising that the social skills would also get reduced.”
How To Limit Children’s Screen Time?
Naturally, as media increases, it becomes more and more difficult to manage kids’ screen time. Where several decades ago, television was the only tech distraction, kids now have smartphones, tablets, laptops and electronic games.
Marjorie Hogan, a pediatrician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and spokeswoman for the AAP, says, “If used appropriately, it’s wonderful. We don’t want to demonize media because it’s going to be a part of everybody’s lives increasingly and we have to teach children how to make good choices around it, how to limit it and how to make sure it’s not going to take the place of all the other good stuff out there.” She continues by explaining, “We need to make media a part of our lives, but in a planned, sensible way.”
Her suggestion is that families should encourage a “healthy media diet” for their children. Parents and kids should work together to decide how much time to spend with media every day and to make sure good choices are being made about what media to take in.
Article from NPR. Read the full article.