Screen Time for Me Time

Screen Time for Me time

As a busy mother of children aged 6 and 8 and working full time, and, I find that my children spend WAY too much time on their electronic devices.  They each have a tablet and the family video game console and then in the evening they are ALWAYS asking, "Can we watch a family movie?" These devices can be life saving while trying to prepare a meal, or work on a project, or complete some extra work around the house.  Turns out, I am not alone.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation,The average child, aged 8-10 years old, spends about 6 hours with a recreational screen. And, kids ages 8-18 now spend, on average, a whopping 7.5 hours in front of a screen for entertainment each day, 4.5 of which are spent watching TV. Over a year, that adds up to 114 full days watching a screen for fun. That’s just the time they spend in front of a screen for entertainment. It doesn’t include the time they spend on the computer or tablet at school for educational purposes or at home for homework.

Turns out, all this screen time has real implications on children. 

 “Taken together, [studies show] internet addiction is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision making, and cognitive control.”  --research authors summarizing neuro-imaging findings in internet and gaming addiction (Lin & Zhou et al, 2012) 

Basically, too much time on electronic devices actually changes the brains of children impacting the ability for executive function. 

Also, screen time is sedentary time, placing children at risk for a host of other health implications.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC 

What Can Be Done

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends setting consistent limits for children aged 6-18 on the amount of time and place they get to have screen time. The APA suggest parents involve children in coming up with screen time rules the family can stick to.

For example, 

1. Keep smartphones, tablets and TVs out of bedrooms, 

2. No electronics at the dinner table. 

3. Find other things to do as a family – cook a meal together, play a board game or take a walk around the neighborhood.
4. When engaging screens for family fun, find interactive alternatives.  For example, dance to music or solve mysteries together.

For additional recommendations and linked peer reviewed articles, check out this resource:
https://joe.org/joe/2016april/pdf/JOE_v54_2tt10.pdf

For more information see the CDC CDC screen time guidelines and the APA guidelines APA screen time guidelines