Why Our Kids Need A Digital Detox?

You check in to say good night to your daughter only to find her watching Youtubers on her phone.
Or your son is busy playing Fortnite when he should be studying.
Sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone - 72 percent of American parents report that their children routinely engage in more than two hours of screen time per day, and it's highly likely that most kids spend more time on their screens (whether it’s a TV, laptop, tablet, video games, aor a phone) than their parents think they do. While digital media and technology have their merits, the way younger generations are embedded in them have led experts to raise some health concerns that go beyond having poor eyesight or a reduced attention span. In fact, robust research links high levels of screen time to slower child development, increased risk for obesity, and susceptibility to depression and insomnia. These long-term implications are probably why a United Nations health agency strongly recommended parents to limit, and in some cases eliminate, screen time for children under the age of 5.

Research Consensus: More Screen Time, Slower Child Development

Amongst all the literature that shows the negative effects of screen time on children, the most notable one is published in the journal Jama Pediatrics by researchers from the University of Waterloo, the University of Calgary and Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute Researchers. In short, this study found that children who spent more time with screens at two years of age did worse on tests of development at age three than children who had spent little time with devices. A similar result was found when children’s screen time at three years old was compared with their development at five years. “When young children are observing screens, they may be missing important opportunities to practice and master interpersonal, motor, and communication skills,” the authors wrote.

To top it all off, and as mentioned above, increased screen time is also linked to depression and sleep disorders because digital media alters the release of the happy and reward chemicals in your brain and because prolonged exposure to your screens’ blue light throws off your circadian rhythm. Interestingly, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that college students who limited their screen time to less than 30 minutes a day were less lonely and depressed, even after just three weeks.

Media Guidelines by the American Academy of Paediatrics

For parents concerned about their child’s screen time, the American Academy of Paediatrics updated their media guidelines a couple years ago based on recent research. Their suggestions include:

• No screen time for children under 18 months old
• For children 18 to 24 months old, parents should choose only high-quality media and watch it with their child.
• For children 2 to 5 years old, less than one hour per day of high-quality programming is recommended, with parents watching along.

A Forewarning for Parents Embedded in Today’s Digital World

Most of the conversations on the dangers of digital screens centre around children and adolescents. Don’t forget that if you limit your kids’ screen time but do not apply some level of screen-time restriction across all family members, adherence will be short-lived. If, by any miracle, it becomes successful but you - as a parent - don’t adopt off-time from your own screen, it is likely that your relationship with your child will deteriorate. In a 2015 survey by AVG Technologies, one-third of children reported feeling unimportant when their parents looked at their smartphones during meals or when playing together. A 2016 study goes a step further, finding that this type of interrupted care can also affect your child’s cognitive development and mental health. 

So, both children and parents need to set limits to their screen time if they are to achieve any substantial positive outcomes in their personal, interpersonal, and cognitive development.