New Research Says Screen Time for Youngsters May Actually Be a Good Thing

A study by Andrew Przybylski of the Oxford Internet Institute has found that screen time for children may actually be beneficial, in contrast to other studies that have nearly universally concluded that screen time is bad. Przybylski takes issue with the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which are:

• children between 2 and 5 should be limited to “one hour a day of high-quality programming”
• infants between 18 and 24 months can have screen time so long as it’s high quality and with a caregiver
• babies shouldn’t be exposed to screens other than video chat

Przybylski and his colleagues used the same data set from the National Survey of Children’s Health via the US Census Bureau between June 2016 and February 2017 to come to different conclusions than those reached by, among others, Jean Twenge,  “one of the most prominent critics of letting children have screen time and the author of the book iGen, which argues that technology is making kids less happy.”

The two researchers disagree with each other, needless to say. Here’s the link to the article in MIT Technology Review about the new study.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614619/screen-time-is-good-for-youmaybe/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_download.unpaid.engagement