The federal government recently released new guidelines. They suggest that children under five spend no more than one hour a day in front of a screen. That was the advice Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, gave to local authorities. It’s the opinion of Professor Russell Viner, scientific adviser to the Department for Education. The new guidelines aim to address increasing concerns over long-term screen time. Most importantly, they look specifically at its impact on young children’s sleep and physical activity.
The newly released guidance is the first set of evidence-based, pragmatic recommendations from the federal government about screen time. It continues to recommend that kids under age 2 not have any solitary screen time.
Key Takeaways
Parents should be purposeful and involved during all screen time with children. This really deepens their engagement with the material and each other.
Alexis, screen time parent for her two kids. As she conveys her experiences and expertise, she turns the act into a daily topic of active discourse. She was exasperated by the time consuming task of monitoring screen time, especially during the mornings and after school.
“At the start of the week I was like, ‘Yeah come on, we’re going to do this,’ and by the end of the week I thought we would have no screens and everything would just swap perfectly – but it didn’t really happen like that. We’ve tried our best,” – Alexis.
Her husband, Marciel, agreed, saying it was hard to impose limits on screens when he was using them himself.
“It’s hard to tell them not to when you’re doing it yourself,” – Marciel.
Even before COVID, child development experts warned parents about the unprecedented change in how children and young adults consume content. This shift has happened over the last 20-30 years. Vicki Shotbolt, founder of Parent Zone, emphasized specifically how a lot of content today is quick, which affects the young audience who may get lost.
“If stuff is coming at us too fast, something called the fight or flight stress system kicks in,” – Sam Wass.
Researchers from the University of Michigan are tracking how this fast-paced content is impacting brain development in children under five. Sam Wass further explained that young children might experience moments where their brains cannot keep up with the speed of content presented to them.
“This is still quite an unknown area in lots of respects and we’ve taken a precautionary approach,” – Bridget Phillipson.
Even with these challenges Alexis recognized that limiting screen time is not practical with her family’s on-the-go lifestyle.
“I need that time, so I’m not going to swap it to sit down and read a book because it’s not realistic,” – Alexis.
The UK Government has committed to explore bringing forward a consultation. Additionally, they can prohibit access to social media platforms for anyone under the age of 16.
