When should we be worried?

Technology plays a vital role in communication, socialisation and learning for children and young people. At school, technology is a powerful tool that can stimulate retrieval, discussion, and creativity in the context of effective learning.

However, there is a rising wave of research that strongly suggests that excessive screen time for children and adolescents has negative learning, emotional and physical consequences, including a rise in the likelihood of obesity, sleep disorders and mental health conditions including depression and anxiety. (Muppalla et al 2023)

Not surprisingly, a study by the Royal Children’s Hospital (2021) in Melbourne found that the top three health concerns of parents for their children relate to screen time and social media. Their concerns relate to:

• the amount of time their teens spend online,
• cyber-bullying and bullying, and
• internet safety.

Teachers and educators are also concerned. The groundbreaking Gonski report, Growing up digital in Australia (2021), found that:

• 78% of educators see a decrease in the ability of students to focus on educational tasks,
• 80% see a decline in empathy of students, and
• 60% see a decline in physical activity.

According to the Gonski report, the time children are spending both in and out of school on digital technologies is having a significant impact not only on their brains, minds and bodies, but also how they experience the world around them.

Studies show that limiting children’s recreational screen time to less than two hours a day, alongside supporting them to get sufficient sleep and physical activity, improves cognition and maximises their capacity to learn. We need to monitor our children’s screen time because:

• Excessive screen time takes up time for real things like family, friends and exercise.
• Excessive screen time negatively impacts focus and learning.
• Emerging research indicates that depression and anxiety in young people are exacerbated by excessive time online and social media.
• Some of the content children are exposed to online is inappropriate and potentially damaging. Children may be exposed to pornography, violence, sexism and other extreme views.

Time spent on screens

Australian Government National Guidelines recommend that children between 5-17 years have no more than two hours of sedentary recreational screen time per day (including television).

Recent data by the Royal Children’s Hospital Child Health Poll in Melbourne revealed that most Australian children across all age groups are far exceeding the current national recommendations. In this survey, according to parents, Australian children are spending an average of over four-and-a-half hours on a screen at home on a typical day. This is not accounting for screen time while at school – approximately one third of waking time.

Further research undertaken by US think tank Commonsense Media (2022) found that teenagers are, on average, spending over 8.5 hours on screens per day, in addition to the time spend on screens for schoolwork (Commonsense Media 2022).

It is important to note that the use of screens for school-related activities and assignments does not seem to produce the same negative outcomes as recreational screen time, possibly due to the type of content or the level of active engagement required.

When should we be worried?

Advice from the esafety Commissioner suggests we need to consider our children’s screen time in the context of their overall health and wellbeing.

Signs that your child’s online activity may be having a negative impact on them and your family include:

• Withdrawl and loss of interest in social activities they used to enjoy eg sport, catching up with friends and family
• Disengagement from school
• Sleep disturbances, fatigue
• Changes in eating patterns
• Reduced personal hygiene
• Obsession with particular websites or games
• Extreme behaviour when asked to take a break from screens eg anger, anxiety, tears
• Appearing anxious or irritable when away from the computer (www.esafety.gov.org).

Impact on learning

The vast majority (84%) of teachers in Australia believe that digital technologies are a growing distraction in the learning environment (n = 1076).

Most of this distraction is due to the constant presence of phones and handheld screens.

Qualitatively, some teachers raised the impact of technology on the literacy abilities of students, with one commenting that ‘students have reduced quality of spelling, punctuation, grammar and reading comprehension of texts displayed on a screen or processed with a device’ (Gonski Institute, 2024).

Young people tend to use screens simultaneously, that is, they are checking their social media as they are doing homework, watching television or listening to music. According to CommonSense Media, when students use technology for homework, they spend 38 minutes out of every 60 minutes off task.

This is obviously problematic because thinking and learning requires focus; we can only learn what we pay attention to (Willingham 2023). And as much as teenagers may think they can, the human brain cannot multi-task (Hari, 2021).

Impact on sleep

Excessive use of screens is linked to poorer sleep outcomes.

Children and adolescents who do not meet the minimum sleep guidelines are more likely to have poorer mental health (e.g. anxiety, depression, unhappiness), be late for or absent from school and may have difficulties with sustained attention throughout the day (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2018).

In children over the age of 10, the smartphone is considered the most important reason for reduced sleep time (Twenge et al., 2019).

Sleep time and quality are thought to be impaired in three ways. The first is interruptions through notifications throughout the night. Approximately one third of teenagers check their phone more than once during the night (Commonsense Media 2022) resulting in fragmented sleep time.

Secondly, the content they are accessing, which is often fast paced or stimulating, may increase their physical and psychological arousal making it harder for them to relax and fall asleep (Lang et al 2000).

Finally, exposure to bright light before bedtime can interfere with melatonin production and delay sleep onset.

Obesity

Excessive screen time reduces the time children spend in physically active pursuits and increases their exposure to advertising of unhealthy foods and drinks.

Many observational studies have found a relationship between screen media exposure and obesity as well as other risks including hypertension, elevated cholesterol, insulin resistance and inflammation (Robinson, T et al 2022).

Eyesight

Prolonged time spent focussing on a screen can cause eye fatigue (asthenopia) and result in headaches, eye pain and general tiredness for children.

Eye fatigue also causes children to lose interest in other tasks that require focus such as reading.

While eye fatigue, dry and irritated eyes and loss of focus flexibility caused by screen use are usually temporary and the eyes return to normal after a rest, there is evidence that permanent nearsightedness (myopia) in children has increased dramatically over the past 30 years.

Scientists are not sure of the exact process causing this, but it has been suggested it is caused by children spending more time indoors on screens resulting in a lack of exposure to natural daylight which is critical for developing eyes (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (2021).

Impact on mental health

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study (Radcliffe, 2018) has followed more than 11,000 children throughout the United States tracking their brain development and health across a range of domains.

As part of this study, MRI scans found significant differences in the brains of some children who reported using smartphones, tablets, and video games for more than seven hours a day.

Additionally, a recent study, based on the ABCD study, led by faculty at the Yale Department of Psychiatry and Columbia School of Nursing, also found that youth who spent the most time on digital technology were statistically more likely to exhibit higher levels of depression, anxiety, social anxiety, somatic complaints, and other concerns.

Researcher Jean Twenge’s work has shown strong links between time spent on screens and depression and suicidality in teens. A recent study reported that teens who spent more time on screens in the form of social media, internet, texting, and gaming thought about suicide a lot more than those who didn’t.

The risks increased for those using electronic devices for two hours or more a day, with 33% of adolescents having at least one suicide-related outcome compared with 29% for those spending one hour a day.

A total of 48% of adolescents who spent five or more hours a day on their phones had thought about suicide or made plans for it. Thus, adolescents using devices five or more hours a day (compared with one hour a day) were 66% more likely to have at least one suicide-related outcome (Walton 2018).

Impact on relationships

Excessive screen time is thought to reduce children’s ability to interpret emotions, fuel aggressive conduct and harm their psychological health in general (Muppalla SK et al  2023).

The highly gendered nature of social media algorithms means that girls and boys are being exposed to very different content on social media, reinforcing narrow gender norms and stereotypes and progressively widening the gap between young people’s common understandings.

This may have ramifications for the ways in which men perceive women and their role in society (Wilshire 2024).

Furthermore, teenage boys aged 14 – 17 years are the highest consumers of pornography and recent research suggests that 73% of all teenagers have watched pornography by the age of 17. Of these, 59% say they watched pornography once a week or more.

The average age when children were first exposed to pornography, often unintentionally, is 12 years. Disturbingly, more than 52% of teenagers have seen violent pornography and 45% believed that online pornography gave them helpful information about sex (Commonsense Media 2023).

We need to be talking to our teenagers about what they are accessing online, and the effect of pornography on attitudes toward sex and relationships. According to Australian Government research, regular use of pornography may:

• shape sexual practices and is associated with unsafe sexual health practices such as not using condoms and unsafe anal and vaginal sex,
• may strengthen attitudes supportive of sexual violence and violence against women,
• reinforce gender stereotypes,
• be addictive and impact on future sexual function.

https://aifs.gov.au/research/research-snapshots/effects-pornography-children-and-young-people

What can parents do?

Helping our young people moderate their technology use is not always easy.

Smartphones didn’t exist when we were growing up, so we have not had the same experiences that our children are currently having. Parents often report feeling ill-equipped to helping their children navigate this complex environment.

At the same time, given the research, we feel that it is important to promote limited recreational screen time and prioritise healthy sleep routines, and physical and social activity for our boys.

As a parent, you can set guidelines to limit your son’s screen time to a reasonable amount. Here are some practical strategies that you can employ at home to help set boundaries and support your son’s wellbeing in the long term:

• Stay engaged and encourage real life activities: Encourage face-to-face social activities rather than digital socialisation. Have conversations with your child about what he is doing online and educate yourself about the games, apps and devices he uses.

• Set clear expectations: Make a plan in conjunction with your child about time spent online. This might include age restrictions on particular apps and websites. It might include limits about time spent online or about breaks from technology use.

• Have tech-free times and places: You might negotiate tech free times for your family, for example having no phones before bed, or only using the phone after homework is completed. Make meal times tech free and, of course, phones should never be in young people’s bedrooms at night!

• Use available technology: There are many parental controls available which can block particular websites or provide you with information about what your child is accessing online. It is important to be honest with your children about why and how you want to use these technologies. Also, be aware that many children know how to get around such technologies so they are not fail safe (esafety Commissioner 2024).

• Monitor your child’s wellbeing: Could any changes in your child’s wellbeing be attributed to the use of screen time? If so, does he have any ideas on how to change his use of screen time? How could he implement these changes effectively?

• Model good technology behaviour. This is one of the hardest tasks for parents, but children will follow what we do more closely than what we say. Children will follow your lead. Think about your own digital usage at home.