When should your child start engaging with screens? How long should they use them for? Can they watch or play alone? Should there be a gap before bed? There is lots of advice for parents about children’s screen use and it’s getting more complex.
The advice is conflicting, often prescriptive and can be stressful to navigate.
How is advice changing and how can parents make sense of it? What is the advice around screen use?
For years, advice about young children and screens was mostly about age and time. Broadly, parents were told to avoid screens until a child is two and then limit it to two hours per day.
This messaging is still prevalent. But it’s been widely critiqued for assuming all screen use, and all children, are the same. It also ignores positive outcomes, such as play and social connection.
Researchers found advice for parents about young children and screens has been expanding in two key ways.
First, it’s no longer just about age and time but when and how to use screens.
For example, parents are told to prohibit screens during meal times and before bed. They shouldn’t have screens on in the background during other activities. And they should make sure content is “slow paced” and “predicable”.
Second, advice is no longer just about avoiding “harms” but maximising “benefits”. Parents are told that screen use “should be educational”. That “active” screen use is better than “passive”.
And that instead of solo screen time, parents should watch and discuss content with their child explaining things, singing along and pausing to ask questions.
How does this advice create problems for parents?
While this advice is well-intentioned, my research shows it can create more pressure and uncertainty.
For starters, it’s conflicting.
Advice about maximising benefits reassures parents that some screen use is okay, while other advice says any screen use will cause a host of negative impacts, from impaired brain development to motor control issues.
Even when advice seems balanced, the details quickly become confusing.
Parents aren’t just told to watch the clock, but also to research the best content, converse with kids as they watch, and make sure screen use doesn’t happen in the “wrong” times and places.
What about different family circumstances?
All this advice tells parents what to do without any knowledge of their unique circumstances.
We know kids play and engage with screen media in many different ways.
And we know kids can differ in how they respond to the same media experiences.
Here are two things that might be helpful to remember when faced with one-size-fits-all advice.
1. There is no single “right” approach
In my research, I spoke to two parents with similar aged toddlers.
One family’s main rule was “no TV in the morning” (turning it off caused chaos).
The other’s was “TV only in the morning” (this worked best for everyone).
Both families figured this out through trial and error.
Examples like this are a great reminder that context is everything.
2. What works for your child?
It might feel unhelpful to hear “there’s no right approach”, but shifting from what the advice says is right to what matters for your child can simplify the task at hand.
You don’t need to know what screen use has the most “benefits”, you just need to know whether your child is generally playing, growing and having fun, with screens and without. (The Conversation)