2023-11-16 13:12:11
Parents and children now often fight over limits on screen time, and even in early childhood, parents have been fighting over screen parenting. A recent study seems to allow parents to let go a little bit. The study found that limiting the time children use 3C is not important. The key lies in the quality of interaction with parents.
The average American teen spends 7.5 hours a day in front of a screen, and older children spend nearly 5 hours a day on devices. Children watching 3C for too long is almost the biggest headache for parents in modern families. An Australian survey found that 3C worries parents even more than cyberbullying and eating junk food. However, there is actually no consensus in the scientific community on the impact of screen time. The medical journal “The Lancet” pointed out in 2019 that researchers seriously lack understanding of the benefits, risks and harms of the digital environment.
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Watching 3C movies with your parents is actually beneficial
A recent study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior found that the effects of screen time on children are complex. They searched for 681 studies on the time children spend watching TV, tablets, mobile phones, computers and game consoles, involving 2 million children, and conducted a meta-analysis to confirm the pros and cons of children’s screen time.
The results found that the overall effect of screens on children’s depression, weight, literacy and sleep was small, with correlations for almost all outcomes less than 0.2, regarding the same as the correlation between height and intelligence. Research suggests that what really matters is not the screen itself, but what is displayed on the screen and how children use it.
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The results show that children who watch TV with their parents actually improve their reading and writing skills compared to children who just stare at the screen. Research suggests that watching TV with parents may improve reading performance because parents control the content their children watch. , thus causing children to watch more educational programs.
They may also ask their children questions regarding the content of the program to encourage their children to participate and research the topic. A similar association exists with video games, but they are only useful if the content of the game teaches arithmetic and is related to the ability to understand and process numbers.
Social media is still doing no harm
There are also negative impacts. For example, watching advertisements on digital devices such as TVs and computers can more easily lead to unhealthy food choices. There are no benefits to social media either, and social media use increases the risk of depression and harmful behaviors, such as unsafe sex and substance abuse. The study highlights that the more time children spend on social media, the more likely they are to develop mental health problems.
The US Surgeon General also pointed out this year that although social media can provide community belonging and connection for young people, especially marginalized groups, it can also harm their mental health. This study suggests that although social networking sites allow children as young as 13 to join, they are still developing their own identity at this stage, so children at this age are still too young to use social media platforms.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has very strict regulations on the time when children are exposed to 3C. For example, they are not allowed to watch it at all before one and a half years old, parents need to monitor it between one and a half to two years old, and they can only watch it for one hour a day between two and five years old. This study suggests that the guidelines need to be updated, not focusing on the amount of screen time, but more on what they are watching. After all, the most important factor in a child’s growth is quality parenting. There are some high-quality programs that can be watched together with the participation of parents. How long to watch is not the key, but it is still better to have less exposure to social media and the Internet.
(Source of first image:pixabay)
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