Excessive Screen Time Among Kids Now A Public Health Concern, Surgeon General Warns
Officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services recently collaborated with the surgeon general to issue an advisory warning about the harmful effects too much screen time can have on kids and teenagers. Getting stuck in an endless loop of social media scrolling, nonstop texting, and playing video games is officially a public health concern in America.
The advisory, according to reports from CNN, warns that exposure to screens is becoming so normalized that it often begins before a child even turns one, and it only gets worse as they get older.
The report stated that by adolescence, children may be spending more time on their electronic devices than sleeping or going to school.
By the time a child becomes a teenager, the amount of time spent on screens is an average of about four or more hours per day, and nearly half of the adolescents used for the advisory stated that they lose track of the amount of time they spend on their phones.
The advisory also offers solutions and a “toolkit” to help parents identify harmful behaviors around screens and how to better limit screen time. One of the suggestions is a limitation of no screen time for a child under 18 months old, less than one hour per day for children under 6, and two hours per day for ages 6 to 18.
A statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that every family is different, but limitations should definitely be enforced, especially during the school week.
“While screen use can have some benefits, the evidence of a range of risks to children’s overall mental and physical health is mounting,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in advisory.
“Social media is only one aspect of this ongoing screen time problem. Behavior patterns involving gaming, online gambling, and other forms of virtual interaction are emerging,” Kennedy said.
“While this report uses ‘screen time’ as a widely understood shorthand, we want people to understand that we are referring to the entire digital ecosystem of apps, smartphones, tablets, chatbots, and other screen-associated devices and interfaces.”
“This Advisory is not only a warning, but also an invitation for all of us to enjoy a broader world, beyond the confines of screens.”
The advisory also includes many “calls to action” to provide recommendations for kids, teenagers, parents, schools, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and technology companies. Some of these recommendations, according to CNN, include:
- Youth track their screen time, take breaks and create boundaries.
- Children complete all other activities, such as homework or extracurriculars, before screen use.
- Parents create a family media plan that covers who can use what screens, where, when, which content and for how long.
- Schools implement cell phone policy restrictions and prioritize assigning work in books or on paper to limit screen use.
- Healthcare providers include questions about screen use in annual well-child visits.
- Researchers study long-term impacts from screens and evaluate school cell phone policy bans or restrictions.
- Policymakers pursue laws that provide parents with controls, demand child safety and privacy protection.
- Tech companies display warnings about harmful screen use and adhere to and enforce age minimums.
Surgeon general advisories are utilized as one of the government’s biggest and strongest statements in regards to public health. They are designed to draw attention and bring an immediate response based on its recommendations.
Parents and families can also use the recently updated guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics to help place limits on devices for their growing children to best protect their mental and physical health.
“The relationship between screens and children’s health remains complex,” said Dr. Courtney Blackwell, an associate professor of medical social sciences.
“That’s not to say on an individual level, some children in some contexts with some pre-existing conditions may experience some kind of challenges when it comes to screen use and mental health or physical health. But at the population level, the research is not definitive, I would say, to suggest screen time causes harm in and of itself,” Dr. Blackwell said.
Dr. Blackwell also doesn’t want families to panic over their children’s screentime in an ever-changing and evolving digital world.
“There can be positive uses of screen media, like ‘Sesame Street,’ and some kids find social support online, and they use it to connect with peers with similar identities at a time when identity development is critical in adolescence,” she said.
“So it’s not just how long kids are spending on screens but really how they’re using it and the context of that use.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
