What We Know About Digital Devices and Children's Mental Health
Screens are now ubiquitous and children are exposed to them from the earliest months. Since the advent of television, parents, educators and mental health professionals have worried about the effects of screen time, but today there is added concern because screens are even more enticing, and they are mobile, and harder to supervise. Complicating the matter is that parents are as addicted to their screens as their children, whom they are attempting to limit and supervise.
Position Statements from Paediatricians
In 1999 and again in 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that paediatricians “urge parents” to avoid screens for children younger than 2 years. In 2016, in response to the fact that 90% of American parents reported that their children under 2 years watch some form of electronic media, the Academy revised its position to recommend that “parents prioritize creative, unplugged time for infants and toddlers,” and that any media content should be “high quality” such as that offered by “Sesame Workshop and PBS.” They concluded that “some media can have educational value starting around 18 months of age.” The Academy also recommended that “parents and caregivers develop a family media plan that takes into account the health, education and entertainment needs of each child as well as the whole family,” and that they “balance media use with other healthy behaviours” for school-aged children and adolescents.
In November, 2017, the Canadian Paediatric Society published a Position Statement recommending no screen time for children under the age of 2 and less than one hour per day for children aged 2-5. This was primarily based on the findings that “children younger than 5 years require active play and quality family time to develop essential life skills, such as language, self-regulation and creative thinking” and “screen time means lost opportunities for teaching and learning” rather than deleterious consequences directly associated with screen time.
The Society’s other recommendations included that parents should:
1. Minimize their own screen time when young children are present and have lots of ‘screen-free’ times (they noted the strong association between parents’ screen time and that of their children).
2. Prioritize interactions with children through conversation, play, and healthy, active routines.
3. Use media with their children to discuss content, advertising, and problematic messaging, and prioritize educational, age-appropriate, and inter-active programming.
4. Avoid screens at least an hour before bedtime because of the potential for melatonin-suppressing effects and consequent reduction in quality sleep time.
The Big Scare
Victoria Dunkley, an American psychiatrist who treated a lot of traumatized and vulnerable children in foster care and group homes came to believe that the children’s temper tantrums and emotional reactivity were the result of overstimulation, created by too much inter-active screen time, particularly video games. Extending her hypothesis from these children to a broader group of children, based on “my informal experience with children of friends and family and reports from parents, grandparents and therapists who completed my website course” (p. 28), she began to attribute a great deal of children’s mental health and behavioural problems to the “unrecognized disorder” she named “Electronic Screen Syndrome.” Her book Reset Your Child’s Brain: End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic ScreenTime was published in 2015 and received a lot of attention, and created a lot of fear and guilt in parents. Dr. Dunkley advocates removing symptomatic children from all screens for three weeks and slowly reintroducing small amounts, thereafter. She doesn’t specify how much can be reintroduced but says you can never err on the side of ‘too little’, and the amount will need to be evaluated, and re-evaluated regularly.
Too much screen time or too little of everything else?
Aside from the scary diagnosis, and the broadness of her claims, there isn’t much outside the realm of common sense in Dr. Dunkley’s approach. She says parents need to reduce their own screen time and spend time with their children “biking, hiking, going on picnics,” taking their children and a friend “to the park, to a swimming pool, or to play basketball.” “After dinner, take a walk together. Try out climbing gyms, explore nearby parks, or have a dance party at home. Check out your town’s parks and recreation department for affordable classes or lessons, like swimming, tennis, racquetball, sewing, cooking, chess clubs, and so on (p. 141).” The clear implication is that children who are suffering from too much screen time are badly neglected and missing out on opportunities for social engagement, exercise, and fresh air. Indeed, Dr. Dunkley acknowledges that one of the biggest impediments to parents undertaking and adhering to her program, is the loss of their “electronic babysitter.”
Anya Kamenetz is a writer who has won awards for her reporting on education, technology, and innovation. She is the lead education correspondent and blogger for National Public Radio in the United States. In 2018, she wrote a book entitled, The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media & Real Life. She introduces pertinent research and offers practical advice for parents about optimizing screen time and establishing limits for themselves, and their children.
Managing screen time is like managing food
Kamenetz makes an analogy between screen time and food; “food is necessary, and the right foods can be powerfully pleasurable, healing, and life-enhancing. By being thoughtful about what behaviours you model and how you introduce foods to your kids, and by sharing the creation and consumption of great meals with them, you can lay the groundwork for joyful lifelong habits (p.9).” In other words, use your own screen time wisely (Kamenetz says if you’re embarrassed to tell your kids what you’re doing, you probably shouldn’t be doing it), plan, select, watch, and engage in quality programming with your kids, and share your thoughts and ideas about what you enjoyed together. Because there is evidence that excessive screen time is associated with obesity, both as a result of being sedentary and snacking, the food analogy is even more compelling –moderation and selectivity are essential.
Not all families and children are the same
Like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Pediatric Society, Kamenetz recommends a family media plan to determine what, when, and how much screen time will optimize enjoyment and minimize interference with socializing, creative play, homework, and exercise. Children as young as 8 or 9 can participate in “setting screen policies” (p. 112). Kamenetz makes the point that children respond to screens differently and parents have to take their children’s personalities and proclivities into account in determining what will work best. Children who have a tendency to be less social, less active, or who are more inclined to become ‘addicted,’ require more stringent rules than those who aren’t. This is just as true for parents as for children. If children are gaining too much weight, are irritable, hyperactive, can’t wake up, or are losing interest in school, friends, and other activities, it may be a warning signal that it’s time to take a break from screens (p. 223). Based on an online survey she undertook, Kamenetz found that parents use many different approaches to limit the screen time of their children.
Some popular ways to set rules:
Time – how much per day
Occasion - certain days of the week or times of the day
Priorities - after homework, chores, outdoor play
Content - for example, no Instagram or Snapchat for tweens, no violent video games
Reward – screen time as a reward for desired behaviours
Worst way to set ‘rules’
Convenience – when parents want to work or have free time.
Family conflict and screens
Generally, children adhere to family rules when they are consistent, make sense to them, are enforced, and apply to all members of the family. If parents are inconsistent or hypocritical, there is bound to be resistance, subversion, or all out rebellion. This is true for screen time rules, as it is for rules about homework, chores, hitting, swearing, and everything else.
Overall, it’s good news.
There is evidence that excessive screen time interferes with sleep and contributes to obesity, both of which are serious concerns. It doesn’t appear however, that screens kill children’s brain cells, impair their ability to learn to read or write, or make them mentally ill. Moreover, there is lots of evidence that quality programming can enhance learning, stimulate curiosity, help prepare children for school, and increase their enjoyment of school. The biggest problem is that because screens are accessible, compelling, and entertaining, they distract from other activities which require more effort, but are necessary for health, happiness, and a successful life in the real world.
Resources:
American Academy of Pediatrics, “American Academy of Pediatrics Announces New Recommendations for Children’s Media Use,” November, 2016.
American Academy of Pediatrics, “Media Use by Children Younger Than 2 Years,” Policy Statement, November, 2011.
The Canadian Paediatric Society, “Screen time and young children: Promoting health and development in a digital world,” Position Statement, November 27, 2017.
Victoria Dunkley, Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic ScreenTime, New World Library, 2015.
Anya Kamenetz, The Art of Screen Time: How Your Family Can Balance Digital Media & Real Life, Public Affairs, New York, 2018.
About The Author
Janet Morrison, M.A., C. Psych Assoc. is a psychological associate in private practice and a senior lecturer at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. Over the past 30 years she has assessed, treated and supervised treatment of children in long-term care, as well as, consulted for Children's Aid Society and group homes across Ontario.