Kids And Screen Time: A Peek At Upcoming Guidance
Here's a stark fact: Most American children spend more time consuming electronic media than they do in school.
Rose Jaffe for NPR
According to Common Sense Media, tweens log 4 1/2 hours of screen time a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. For teens, it's even higher: nearly seven hours a day. And that doesn't include time spent using devices for school or in school.
From babies with iPads to Chromebooks in classrooms, digital devices seem more ubiquitous every year. And one of the hottest issues today in both parenting and education circles is the proper role of electronic media in children's lives.
There's research to support both the benefits and dangers of digital media for developing minds. Plenty of questions remain unanswered.
But those of us raising and teaching children can't afford to wait years for the final evidence to come in. That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics plans to update its guidelines on media use later this year. Current recommendations are to avoid all screens for children under 2, and to allow a maximum of two hours per day of high-quality material for older children.
I spoke with David Hill, chairman of the AAP Council on Communications and Media and a member of the AAP Children, Adolescents and Media Leadership Working Group, to hear about the upcoming recommendations and to get some advice on how to use screens wisely.
Why new screen time recommendations now?
The American Academy of Pediatrics routinely updates all of its recommendations to ensure that they reflect the most current data. We are hoping to expedite the process for these particular recommendations in light of the fast-changing landscape of children's media use. We understand that, as the technologies available to parents evolve, they are looking for guidance that reflect their current realities. Our goal is to release these new policy statements in October of 2016.
What are the intentions behind the new guidelines?
The intentions of all of our policy statements are the same: to translate the best available data on child health and development into recommendations that help Kids And Screen Time: A Peek At Upcoming Guidance : NPR Ed : NPR:
