The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has put out a new technical report and policy statement regarding children and screen time. The consensus is, well, complicated.
“Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents” acknowledges how pervasive and interwoven immersive technology is in our lives — and the lives of young people. And how we can’t just reduce everything to screen time: “The traditional notion of ‘screen time’ therefore represents just the tip of the iceberg of families’ experiences with devices. Beneath the visible surface lies a vast structure of policy, community, and economic incentives that deeply shape children’s interactions with technology.”
The study also acknowledges that it’s not, and should not be, all on parents and caregivers to regulate such a powerful and all-encompassing digital ecosystem, which includes everything from the internet to TV, video games, social media, and, recently AI. Government policies, schools, and community should drive digital experiences in our youth.
In recent decades, the digital ecosystem has exponentially grown as an engagement-based system. This engagement-based digital ecosystem may take the form of AI algorithms inferring teens’ interest in harmful content, families’ frequent exposure to low-quality and data-mining tech products, and endless scrolls and autoplay that prolong digital engagement at the expense of other offline child opportunities.
At the same time, there has been an erosion in the investment of viable, positive offline experiences for families, such as community spaces, extracurricular opportunities, cultural shifts in children’s free play, and adequate child care. Given these two converging phenomena, families face an uphill challenge when trying to manage their own digital media use, set appropriate boundaries around digital consumption, and monitor or guide their children’s use.
Ultimately, the study is optimistic and hopeful. There is potential for enriching digital ecosystems for children and teens. AAP recommends using the 5 Cs of Media Use when evaluating digital media (Child, Content, Calm, Crowding Out, Communication), screening out unwanted content, and creating screen-free time for the whole family.
