The Screen Time Debate: How Much Is Too Much For Children?

Screen time is an unavoidable aspect of modern parenthood. Living in a technologically advanced world means that children will be exposed to all kinds of screens as they grow up. Many parents worry about the effects of screen time on their kids, with these fears largely fuelled by research studies indicating that excessive screen time can impact a child’s cognitive and social-emotional growth.

The fear for most parents is that their child spends too much time staring at screens, and this can prevent them from developing at a “normal” rate in school. While there are genuine reasons for concern here, the biggest problem surrounding the screen time debate is: how much is too much?

Avoiding screen time entirely in young children may not be practical for every family. As children grow, age-appropriate screen use can help them become familiar with technology. Children can build familiarity with computers and tablets as they encounter them at school. It becomes a very delicate balancing act between exposing them to enough screen time so they learn new skills without tipping it overboard and making it detrimental to their health.

The case for quality over quantity

The screen time debate gets even more interesting when quality over quantity comes into the equation. Are parents too fixated on the number of minutes or hours their children spend looking at a screen, when in fact they should focus more on the quality of screen time a child is getting?

There are certainly arguments in favor of this, and one of the best examples comes when looking at children’s TV and stimulation. A review in 2022 looked at screen content and found that when it is visually and audibly appropriate for a child’s age, it can have a positive effect—including content that encourages interaction and engagement.

One option is slow TV for kids, which refers to low-stimulation shows and videos that have been deliberately paced for developing brains. When children watch this type of content, they may actually benefit from it because it can teach them something or encourage them to be more cognitively engaged. The same review mentioned earlier suggests that the effects of screen content can vary with a child’s age and the viewing context.

It raises the question: is a child better off watching slow TV for one hour or extremely fast-paced, overstimulating content for just 30 minutes?

Learning To manage how a child spends their screen time

Instead of becoming too caught up on the amount of time a child spends in front of a screen, parents should learn how to manage what they watch. As mentioned above, the focus should be on age-appropriate content that (largely) engages the child and helps with their overall development.

Some questions to ask include:

• Is the content educational in any way?
• Is it very fast-paced with lots going on at once?
• Are there loads of adverts or constant distractions?
• Does it encourage a child’s curiosity or get them to perform activities while watching?
• How does the child react to the content?

The last question is particularly important as it often showcases whether or not content is suitable for a child. If the child is bouncing around the room or being really loud while watching, then it may be worth checking whether the content suits them. This may be a sign that the content is not a good fit at that moment, and they could try something else to watch. Similarly, if they are mindlessly staring at the screen on the verge of zoning out, then it may also be worth checking how engaged they are.

Suitable content leaves a child visibly engaged without them going overboard. It then becomes a case of making sure that the child sees this type of content more often and avoids potentially damaging content.

Parents can do this by setting up parental locks on devices to prevent children from visiting sites that might show “bad” content – like social media. Instead, parents can install YouTube Kids and then be more vigilant when it comes to checking on what their child watches there.

A child can have screen time without it being bad for their health, as long as the content they’re watching is engaging enough to encourage development.

The importance of non-screen time activities

While screen time isn’t automatically bad for a child, it is important to recognize that there still needs to be a balance—and the balance should still lean heavily towards activities that don’t involve screens. A child needs to learn and develop all sorts of different skills while they’re young, and most of these don’t involve screens or devices.

What about their social and emotional development? Being outside and playing with other kids can contribute to this development as they learn how to interact with others. Parents can make room for outdoor play and social interactions alongside screen time. The same goes for more “analog” activities—like reading books, doing physical puzzles, painting/drawing and so on. These activities encourage a child’s creative development, which is extremely important when they start going to school.

So, as much as it is possible to make screen time more beneficial for a child, that doesn’t mean it should replace other parts of a child’s life. A good way to think about it is that screen time is one option among the activities available. It’s the activity a child engages in when they’ve already done lots of other things during the day, or the parent doesn’t have time at the moment. For instance, they watch some slow TV while the parent cooks dinner or washes up.

So, how much is too much?

Generally, too much screen time is when a child isn’t doing other activities because they’re glued to a screen. It’s also important to remember that quality is better than quantity.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider.