Screen time guidelines made some interesting changes when The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published new children and media policy statements on Friday. These statements updated their previous statement given in 2013 with new recommendations for modern media use with children 0-18 years old.
The first big change is a change from the “No screen time under 2” advice in 2013, now the policy statement is that children younger than 18 to 24 months should be discouraged from media use, except for video chatting. Not only have they lowered the acceptable age for screen time, but they have given the okay for video chatting while parents co-view. The academy advises that parents should limit daily screen time for children 2-5 years old to 1 hour of high-quality programming and co-view the programming with their children. For children older than 5 years old, the Academy urges parents to “develop personalized media use plans for their children that attend to each child’s age, health, temperament, and developmental stage.” Parents can create a Family Media Plan here. This Family Media Plan allows parents to input all of their children’s daily activities (School, Sleep, Meals, Family Time, etc.) and the duration’s to give you the recommended screen time for each child. Lastly the Academy discusses a wide range of topics from risks and benefits of media use to how to be a positive role model of media use. The Academy answers some basic questions on each topic of media use. Even with the research presented, the academy admits that “The effects of media use, however, are multifactorial and depend on the type of media, the type of use, the amount and extent of use, and the characteristics of the individual child or adolescent using the media.”
While these guidelines are a little less restrictive compared to the guidelines in 2013, the guidelines listed here are exactly that, guidelines. Parents still need to look at the research behind the statements rather than focus only on the guidelines given. The Academy’s guidelines are put in place given the current research available to date. As the policy statement said, “…research in this area still remains limited.” Research takes a lot of time and technology is growing and improving so fast that research can not keep up. More studies need to be conducted to duplicate some of these claims as well as expand upon them. Also, more studies need to be conducted to try and eliminate outside factors from being an alternative cause to the results, such as economic status, parent education, child’s temperament, etc. I believe all of these factors have an impact on the effects of media use and it’s acceptability for each individual child.
It is worthy to note that some research points to the type of media consumed having an affect on young children. “Content is crucial… Notably, the quality of parenting can modify associations between media use and child development: one study found that inappropriate content and inconsistent parenting had cumulative negative effects on low-income preschoolers’ executive function, whereas warm parenting and educational content interacted to produce additive benefits.” This information still needs further research on a larger scale, but so far this shows the content of the media makes a difference. The content of what the child watches could change whether or not the media time is more beneficial. Parents should use the above guidelines to help them create a media plan that works for their family as well as create optimal learning experiences and family time, outside of media time.
What do you think about the new AAP guidelines? Did you know about the AAP guidelines? Let me know in the comments below!