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matter to their health, development and
wellbeing; evidence supports this”, he and
his colleagues wrote in a letter to the editor
of the Journal of Pediatrics.
Theoretical screen time rules aside, in
reality, they are often virtually impossible to
meet. So, practically speaking, Okely thinks
parents should at least moderate their
children’s screen time.
“We believe that digital mediums can be
used positively,” he says.
“It’s when they are used in excess that
problems likely arise.”
Elizabeth Handsley concurs. The
president of the Australian Council
on Children and the Media, and law
professor at Flinders University, thinks “we
have enough evidence to form a basis
for moving forward ... on screen time
for children”.
Campus Review spoke with Handsley to
find out more.
CR: What don’t we know about the evidence
on screen time?
EH: Well, there are always gaps in what we
know and don’t know about anything, but
there are times when we just have to say
we have enough evidence to form a basis
for moving forward.
And I do think we have enough evidence
on screen time for children, particularly
considering the way we can rely on
broader sources of research about child
development and the kinds of things that
enhance child development, and the fact
that extra screen time can take children’s
attention away from the other things
they need to do in order to continue
their development.
Broadly speaking, how does that evidence
stack up?
The research on how children develop is
very well advanced and has been going
on for a long time, so we can be very
confident about knowing things like the fact
that young children need to explore the
physical world around them, and they need
interaction with other humans – that’s all
very clear.
How screen experiences compare to
that might [not yet be fully understood
because this technology is still new and
the research still in its infancy]. That’s why
it’s best to rely on the broader evidence
of what we know about what children
need rather than trying to seek some
kind of certainty about the impact of new
experiences when we just haven’t had time
to develop that.
So how does that translate into practice, in
terms of screen time guidelines?
We can recommend to parents that they
continue with the advice on parenting that’s
been around for generations: ensure that
children have opportunities to explore the
physical world around them, that they have
opportunities to have interactions with
other humans, and so on.
The difficulty comes in, of course, when
different parents and different families have
quite different circumstances, and it’s not
always easy, especially when there’s some
kind of disadvantage in a family – be it
socioeconomic, a disability of some kind,
or a substance abuse issue, for example –
for parents to fulfil those kinds of functions
and provide those things for children.
The question then becomes: What
obligations do we have as a society to
support parents and to provide those
opportunities directly to children?
This is why we have things like
educational TV, kindergartens, childcare
centres, play groups and so on that
support parents in providing that range
of experience for children, and ultimately
these are the things we need to focus on as
a society.
Focusing on screen time as just this
one thing can lead us to lose sight of the
broader picture of children’s lives and
the positive things we can be providing
for children and for families in order to
enhance their development.
Do you think we are doing enough as a
society to help those who might rely on
screens too much?
There’s always more we can be doing as a
society to support parents and children in
relation to all aspects of their lives, and in
particular we do have challenges relating
to the use of screens and screen-based
technologies at the moment. We really
could be doing quite a lot more in terms
of supporting parents, to select the best
content for their children, to be providing
the range of balanced experiences for
their children that will enhance their
development.
As well as providing support through
organisations and initiatives, as mentioned,
there are also direct sources of information
that could be provided to parents. For
example, the Australian Council on
Children and the Media has a movie review
service and an app review service that
parents can access directly in order to find
the best and most appropriate content for
their children.
In particular, I think that the question
of choosing the right content is one that
needs a lot more attention, because in
this debate we do tend to focus on hours
with screens as if all are equal, and they’re
absolutely not.
For example, there are some children
who have relatives living a long way away,
and the only way they can interact with
those relatives is through a screen. Are we
going to treat the time the child spends
doing that as the exact equivalent to their
development as time spent playing a
mindless gambling game or something
like that? Absolutely not. We need to have
that more subtle conversation about
what the content is and how we can best
support parents to evaluate and access the
best content for their child’s age and stage
of development.
Do you have any specific advice for
educators in relation to screen time?
Educators tend to be the ones who see
the effects of excessive screen time in
children; for example, when children
arrive at school tired, when they’ve been
eating badly, and when they’re not getting
enough exercise.
Sometimes we also hear of some
children being more aggressive at school,
and suggestions that it might be something
to do with the kind of media they’re
consuming at home.
So we realise that educators are really
people who have a strong stake in all of
this. They have an opportunity to address
some of it, but obviously there’s only so
much they can do. They have a lot of other
calls on their time and resources as well.
But in terms of advice, I would suggest
that they just be aware of the developments
and conversations that are going on in
relation to these matters, both the content
of the media that children consume and the
amount they consume.
They should also look for opportunities
to have conversations with parents about
the impact that media use and screen use
can have on children’s development and on
their experiences at school.
Those kinds of conversations could be
quite useful for the child, the parent and
the educator. ■
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