Are Screens Bad for Kids?

Year 1 to 12 students, parents, and teachers

Confusion reigns around the concept of screen time. How much is too much? Are our kids spending too much time on screen? What are the health effects? Is it the same for different age groups? Is it the same for each kid? These questions are relevant and the answers are different dependent on the activities that involve screens, but here are some general up-to-date recommendations (for full details, click on the source provided).

• engage your children in their virtual environments

• be a wonderful role model

• talk to your child to counter passive video viewing

• content* is more important than the screen time

• encourage media-free playtime for very young

• set limits and boundaries to create life balance

• allow teens online, but as good digital citizens

• create media-free times and areas in your home

• guide them when they make mistakes

• talk about why tech is so addictive (research first)

*Common Sense Media for aged-based expert reviews

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics' Guidelines for Screentime for Kids

Question: How much time do you spend on screen and doing what?

Casper Pieters PhD Dip Ed is an author and educator who uses adventure narratives to enliven the ICT curriculum for young people. www.casperpieters.com

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