Screen Time Addiction

Most Saturday mornings I switch on the radio (3AW) and listen to the weekly interview with Charlie Brown.  Charlie is a tech expert and talks about all things technology.  What I like about him is that he talks almost ‘technological jargon’ free. 

In his recent weekly chat, he talked about screen time and the ‘addiction’ to screens that many people have.  He referred to a recent study and I thought I would share a few of the interesting and frightening facts.

We all need to play our part in this…

Screen time – children, teens, and everyone else at risk

Screen time has become one of the most controversial discussions. How much is too much for kids, teens, or adults? Can too much screen time cause harm? Should children be supervised when online?

French President Emmanuel Macron commissioned a report, Children and Screens: In Search of Lost Time. Sorry, it is in French, but a 142-page machine-translated version is at the end of this article. It clearly states that children should be banned from owning/using a smart phone until they are 13 and banned from social media until they are 18. We have summarised all the main outcomes here Screen Time for Kids – hyper-connection is harming our children.

The Commission insisted on 29 proposals taken as a whole to solve the issues confronting Gen Alpha (2010+), Gen Z (1997-2012), and Millennials (1981-1996).

First, let’s set a few rules for this debate

• Screen time means computers, tablets, or phones. It does not necessarily include casual TV viewing. According to Statistica, 23.6 million Aussies have a mobile phone, and less than 3% of 16-64 deliberately avoid their use.
• There is a vast difference between the impacts of entertainment, education, news/current affairs, shopping, gaming, porn, gambling, radicalisation, violence and social media screen time.
• Users range from little kids to adults, each with acceptable screen times.
• Each person has an individual limit to how much screen time they spend and what type of content harms them.

There is no one answer, but a few guidelines may make sense in your situation.  Too much screen time can lead to harm for anyone.

The US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) says screen time is a drug in the sense that you can become addicted. USA teens spend an average of seven hours and 22 minutes on screens daily! That doesn’t include computer time for schoolwork or TV!

Studies show that too much screen time can affect your body. Adolescence is critical for brain development, so teens are especially at risk.

NIDA says:

• Use a screen time app if only to tell you how much time you have used—or, as it is known, a way to ‘restrain and retrain’ you to use screen time sensibly.
• Once you know how much you are addicted, set a limit for, say, half that time and progressively wean yourself off it.
• If you are becoming sleepless, anxious, depressed, overweight, have neck or back pain, or find life too hard, you likely suffer from too much screen time with the wrong content.
• Keep bedrooms screen-free – never use a screen 30-60 minutes before bed.
• Schedule time to do things without your phone.
• Exercise, physical interaction and socialising are the best ways to retrain your brain.

Screen time for kids – acceptable limits

The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) publishes recommended screen times:

• no screen time for children younger than two years.
• no more than one hour per day for children aged 2–5 years.
• Maximum of two hours of sedentary recreational screen time per day for children and young people aged 5–17 years (not including schoolwork).

AIFS’s strongest message is to get kids moving and supervise screen content—do it together and bond.