Screen Time Harms Kids: Are Parents Ignoring Expert Advice on Limits for Young Children?

Many parents struggle to limit their children's screen use despite professional guidance. Studies continue to link excessive screen use to child development concerns.

The Struggle to Limit Screen Time

A 3-year-old girl's mother in Los Angeles, Maya Valree, knows and worries about the risks. She added that her working parent lifestyle makes restricting her daughter's screen usage to one hour impractical.

Her youngster has spent 2-3 hours a day on screens in recent years, more than double the medical guideline. Valerie tries to show educational shows, but her kids prefer Meekah and "The Powerpuff Girls."

She said screen time is among the top three or five guilts mothers feel. She admitted using it to distract her daughter while cooking, working, or catching up on personal or professional things.

Valerie is one of many parents who let their babies and preschoolers watch more than experts recommend. This creates a massive gap between the worrisome forecasts of harm and the reality of digital life for American families.

Her guilt may place Valree in the minority. Many parents don't think their child's screen time is an issue; thus, they may not enforce screen time limits.

Dr. Whitney Casares, a Portland physician and author of "Doing It All," highlighted that parents need distractions for their children, and screens are often the default choice due to convenience. She noted that many people are concerned about screen time, knowing its risks but feeling powerless to minimize it in their families.

In June, the Los Angeles school board banned cellphones on campus all day, and the U.S. surgeon general urged parents to alert social media platforms that they can harm teens' mental health. Many families allow their kids to use phones for safety and instruction.

Such feelings begin with younger children for a generation raised on cell phones and computers. A national poll of parents of children under 8 found that most feel screen usage helps their children read, be creative, and socialize.

Screens and Developmental Concerns

Many parents use screens to entertain or distract young children while juggling other needs in today's tech-driven society. It works. Screens hold kids' attention like nothing else, giving parents a break. What are the effects of screens on young minds, and how much screen time should kids get?

Brain scientists studying how screens affect newborn brains don't know everything, but what they know will help parents realize the importance of off-screen experiences. Only then will kids learn, enhance their social and cognitive skills, and be healthier and happier.

World-renowned brain scientist Patricia Kuhl experiments on about 4,000 newborns each year. She points to multiple computer brain scans and explains, "We've discovered that babies under a year old do not learn from a machine." Even captivating videos make a huge difference in learning. Humans learn genius, but machines learn nothing."

Perhaps that's why the WHO advises against screen time for newborns under two and one hour a day for 2-4-year-olds. Children must learn to focus to succeed.

In their early years, children's brains become more sensitive to their surroundings, developing this talent. A brain needs external stimuli to grow and develop. More crucially, it needs time to assimilate inputs. Reading stories aloud helps children assimilate words, images, and voices, but prolonged exposure to on-screen messages and graphics damages their attention span and focus.

Research shows that screen time hinders young children's ability to read faces and gain social skills essential to empathy. Only face-to-face encounters help young toddlers interpret nonverbal cues.

Charles Nelson, a Harvard neuroscientist who studies neglect's impact on children's brains, says kids communicate nonverbally before they learn language. Babies closely watch facial expressions to determine whether someone likes them. Brain growth depends on this two-way contact between children and adults.

Screens impair babies' emotional reading and frustration control. It also hinders brain-boosting activities like play and socializing with other kids. However, if you must use screens, manage their quality and interact with them. Limiting or eliminating screen use in early childhood has lifelong benefits.