Worried your child is spending too much time on a screen? How to set limits

Marly Casanova has accomplished the seemingly impossible — her 1-year-old son, Jude Parker, has not watched a minute of television or played with a phone or tablet. Ever.

She was inspired by a book she read during her pregnancy, “Brain Rules for Baby: How to Raise a Smart and Happy Child from Zero to Five” by John Medina.

“I’ve committed to not give my son any screen time until after his second birthday, so far so good,” Casanova said. “We don’t even turn on the TV and try to be mindful of not using my phone around him.”

Some studies warn screens hinder child development; others say they are helpful learning tools. With no definite medical standards on appropriate screen time for kids, parents often turn to books and studies to figure out what’s right and how to pry devices from their children’s eager hands.

“I would say screen time is one of the biggest and most common challenges that I help parents with nowadays,” said Ana Maria Alvarez, founder of AMA Parent Coaching and former educator. “By nature, parenting is challenging, and now parents are dealing with all this technology that has exploded in the past 12 years or so at such a fast pace.”

There is a growing body of research on the effects of excessive screen use and health professionals are taking notice. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued new guidelines on screen time for children 5 and under — including television, computers, smartphones, tablets and game consoles.

According to WHO, children ages 2 to 4 should have no more than one hour of screen time per day. Screen time is not recommended at all for infants ages 1 and under.

The health organization also cites active play, quality sleep and non-screen-based activities, such as reading, storytelling, singing and puzzles, as “very important for child development.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests children ages 2 to 5 limit screen use to one hour per day. Children 18 to 24 months should have limited screen use that is “high quality programming,” such as “Sesame Street,” and 18 months and younger should completely avoid screens other than video chatting.

Children 6 and older should have limits on how much time they spend on a screen, and limits on the type of media, the pediatricians’ group says.

Studies suggest excessive screen time can affect children and teens in various significant ways, including slowing down development in infants and toddlers, reduced sleep due to exposure to blue light, obesity, anxiety and depression.

Research specific to phones and other digital devices is fairly new and the overall consensus is that there is not enough concrete evidence yet, but data on the effects of too much TV watching has been around for decades.

“There is a lot of evidence that excessive TV watching is associated with sedentary behavior, which leads to obesity and other health issues,” said Alan Delamater, Ph.D., director of the Division of Clinical Psychology in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Miami Mailman Center for Child Development.

“The interesting thing now is that with smartphones, tablets and other portable devices you see it everywhere all the time. We don’t really know yet the consequences of that.”

Delamater says the new guidelines are helpful, but it should not be a one-size-fits-all approach. Parents need to use their own judgment. For small children, he suggests limited screen time while interacting with a parent to ensure they develop fundamental skills.

For older kids and teens, the risk is too much media consumption. A 2010 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found children 8 to 18 years old devote an average of seven and a half hours to using entertainment media on a typical day. That’s more than 53 hours a week. In extreme cases, they can even become addicted to the internet or technology, though it’s not a formally recognized diagnosis.

“The greater the use, the greater the likelihood of increased tolerance and future dependence,” said Isabel M. Perez, a licensed school psychologist and expert on addiction. “Going online often, watching YouTube, going on social media sites, and playing video games, to name a few, does not mean everyone has an internet addiction. It’s when these activities interfere with daily life that it becomes a problem.”

Parents can help by setting healthy boundaries, but many struggle to impose limits on screen time and media consumption, even on themselves.

“Model what you want to see in your kids,” said Danette Beitra, Ph.D., clinical psychologist at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.

She suggests setting clear limits and sticking to them, even when it’s difficult.

“If you take the phone away and they have a meltdown, that’s OK. Kids will have meltdowns. That’s how they learn to regulate their emotions,” Beitra said. “Think of it as a great learning opportunity.”

In recent years, resources have popped up to help families navigate the digital world.

The American Academy of Pediatrics offers a free online Family Media Plan to create a balance between digital and real life (also available in Spanish).

The nonprofit Common Sense Media offers a library of independent age-based ratings and reviews on books, games, apps, TV and movies.

Apps like Net Nanny, Our Pact, Kid Tracker, and Azoomee (for games/learning) make it easier for parents to manage children’s screen time.

In her coaching practice, Alvarez advises parents to set a family meeting and tackle the issue as a unit, discussing what’s important to everyone, setting tech-free zones and curfews.

“We don’t know how technology is going to affect our children and society, but we have to be proactive and learn how to co-exist with it,” Alvarez said.

This story was originally published July 24, 2019 at 7:00 AM.