How much screen time is too much for my child?
A mom of an 11 year old, asks Child and Adult Psychiatrist Dr. Domenick Sportelli how much screen time really is too much at that age? Dr. Dom reviews the pros and cons of exposure to technology for kids of all ages.
Transcript
If you can interact with the child while they're watching this content, even better. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, Dr. Dom. My name is JJ. And I am struggling with a screen dilemma. I don't want my daughter to not be included and not
be able to chat with her friends. But I'm really worried about the amount of screen time. Can you help me with this? This has been a topic since televisions.
I remember my mom telling me, stop watching TV. It's going to rot your brain, right? Remember these things. But now we have a lot of exposure to screens.
Technology-- it's everywhere, iPhones, tablets. So how bad are they? Well, here's the truth.
Many, many studies support that screen time can have negative consequences. The first one is actually physical health,
because what we notice is in research is the more time children and adults and adolescents spend
on their screens, it leads to a more sedentary lifestyle. And obviously, that means an increase in obesity an increase
in physical health issues. So the physical aspect of this is very real. Another problem that we see is what's
called sleep dysregulation. People tend to get on their screens late at night when they're relaxing in bed. And the truth is that research has
supported the blue light in these screens does activate the brain. And it reduces melatonin, which is a natural hormone that helps
our mind relax and go to sleep. So that blue light stimulation late at night could potentially affect your sleep in a negative way.
Not only that, but sometimes the content of what you're watching or your child is watching could be very activating.
If they're watching action movies or very fast-paced content, these can certainly affect sleep as well.
So sleep dysregulation is a very real consequence of too much screen time. Another thing that we see which is really important
is developmental milestones. And what I mean by that is actually, children that spent a lot of time on their screens
growing up at a very young age, had decreased social skills, decreased language development, and decreased attention spans.
These are very, very real consequences of too much screen time. Content exposure-- really, really important, guys,
because there's so much inappropriate content out there. There's graphic content. There's sexual content. There's violent content.
So the content exposure can also lead to some behavioral problems. And we know that through research as well.
And then when we talk about mental health, something that's really important to face is that social media has caused what we call "social comparison."
So we notice that kids that spend a lot of time on social media platforms, for example, tend to have a little bit more self-criticism and judgment
and decreased self-esteem. Now, I just gave you guys a laundry list of bad consequences.
I also want to shine a little bit of light on this and say there actually has been research that showed that there were some positives with screen time.
So let's talk about that for a second. With judicious use of screen time, educational content, and parent involvement, children actually did better in school.
And they had better academic performance. And they had better attention and concentration and better language. skills. Does anybody remember what was in this container before?
Ice, brrr. I will accept ice, brrr. Now, remember what I said--
limited exposure, educational content, and with a parent present, interacting with them.
That's what the research shows in that regard. So let's get to the American Pediatric Association guidelines of how much screen time your children
should or should not have. Well, from the age of 0 to 2, guess what-- zero screen time.
From the age of 2 to 5, a total of 1 hour per day. And this should be educational content.
And it should be under your supervision. And if you can interact with the child while they're watching this content, even better.
Now, from the age of 5 to 17, the APA recommends no more than 2 hours a day on screen time,
because after that, there tends to be some detrimental effects, all right? So hopefully, this is some good information for you guys.
So limit that screen time and follow some of those guidelines, and your kids are going to be off to a great start. [AUDIO LOGO]
child development
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