Ask HN: Is there scientific consensus on how to manage screen time?

[dojitza1]

I Have been researching a lot recently and I am struggling to find clear guidelines on how to approach screen time with children.

There are some good rules I found on how to handle food (Parents are responsible for the what, when, and where of feeding and children are responsible for the how much and whether of eating).

But the screen time advice seems to conflict this approach somewhat. I often see sources advocating for a hard limit of screen time, which seems counterproductive in the context of how we approach teaching our children on managing gratification and self control.

I am keen to believe that providing viable alternatives and setting an example by our own non-screen quality family time should steer the child in the right direction.

Looking forward to your experiences and insight!

[oulipo]

Perhaps the idea could be reverse: to ENFORCE mandatory non-screen time

It's been proven that children need sunlight to avoid the effect of myopia, and they need sport activities to fight obesity and sedentarity, and social "in-person" activities

perhaps when they have enough of those per day, you could then let them do what they want on screens, as long as they have enough of creative and social activities

[giantg2]

I haven't seen any consensus, but there are many recommendations out there. I don't think I've seen many that recommend a hard limit. They're more like guidelines. There is some differentiation based on age, type of screen time, and quality of the content. Each kid will be different too.

These are the guidelines from US pediatricians. We end up exceeding these limits, but not by too much. We also struggle with content quality. It still seems to be ok so far. These limits don't have to be enforced as a hard limit. As the kid gets older, they should be involved in seeing why something isn't for them (content rating, time use, etc) and be a partner in adhering to the limits voluntarily.

0-18 months: Zero screen time except for video chatting

18-24 months: Zero screen time except for video chatting

2 to 5 years: Less than an hour on weekdays and 3 hours on weekends on high-quality programming or digital media (less time preferred)

5 to 8 years: Less than 2 hours daily with a limit on high-quality programming or digital media

8 to 12 years: Less than 2 hours daily with a limit on high-quality programming or digital media

Teenagers: Parents and children establish limitations and guidelines

[smarm52]

Sure, France recently had a panel of scientists make recommendations on screen time:

https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/05/01/french-experts-reco...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/30/stop-children-...

Their recommendations seemed to be based on pretty conclusive evidence.

[incomingpain]

>I Have been researching a lot recently and I am struggling to find clear guidelines on how to approach screen time with children.

dont fix what's not broken. If they have lots of screentime but are watching educational stuff like alphablock/numberblocks. why would you do anything about it?

>But the screen time advice seems to conflict this approach somewhat. I often see sources advocating for a hard limit of screen time, which seems counterproductive in the context of how we approach teaching our children on managing gratification and self control.

There's lots of bad advice on the internet. Much of which is malicious. Dont trust everything you read on the internet.

>I am keen to believe that providing viable alternatives and setting an example by our own non-screen quality family time should steer the child in the right direction.

You want to be playing catch/kick/ball with your kid. Go for that bikeride with them. Take them fishing. Do some painting with them. But if it's -30c outside and a foot of snow, they are watching educational tv. My butt is not doing snow stuff lol.