What Is the Recommended Screen Time for Children?
With technology advancing and children becoming more and more online, it’s important to make sure our kids aren’t spending too long using screens. It’s recommended that children under five spend less than an hour per day using screens, and some health experts have recommended that children aged five to 17 should limit their daily screen time to 2 hours.
The World Health Organization has reported that children under five should spend less time sitting looking at screens, and more time being physically active to grow up healthy. Children develop very quickly in early childhood, so it’s important they’re encouraged to live a healthy lifestyle in this period to aid their physical and mental development. The world health organization found that not getting enough sleep, spending too long sitting down looking at screens or in a pram had negative impacts on children’s development. The best way to combat this is to reduce overall screen time, encourage plenty of physical activity and make sure children are getting good quality sleep. This is said to help improve mental health, physical health and general wellbeing and development. This year, they surveyed 2000 between the ages of 5 and 16. On average, they found that children spend around three hours per day online, and 57% of children they surveyed said they sleep with their mobile phones next to their beds.
Research and surveys from other groups have found similar results – Ofcom reported in 2018 that 40% of 8 to 11-year-olds took their phones to bed with them, and 71% of 12 to 15-year-olds did the same. Ofcom also found that 93% of eight to eleven-year-olds were online for around 13.5 hours per week, and 74% played video games for 10 hours a week. While excessive use of screens without enough physical activity can definitely be harmful, screen time alone isn’t necessarily always a problem. Some feel that parents should focus on making sure their children are using screens safely and productively, rather than putting strict limits on any amount of time without considering other factors. There are plenty of productive, safe and beneficial ways for children to use screens. For example, children can use screens to keep in contact with friends, do research for school or explore wider knowledge in general.
Using screens for these reasons can definitely help with their development, but it’s always important to ensure kids are safe online and viewing appropriate content. If you’ve got a young child, make sure you always supervise them online and set up parental controls to ensure your kids don’t stumble across any inappropriate material.
