Screen time: how much is too much?
Source: Nature
It has become a defining question of our age: do children and adolescents spend more time than is healthy staring at a phone, tablet or computer? Should parents limit their access? Should governments?
Nearly all US teenagers say they have access to a smartphone, and about half say they are online almost constantly, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey (see go.nature.com/2akajas). In the United Kingdom, the time young people spend online has almost doubled over the past decade, the communications-industry regulator, Ofcom, has found (see go.nature.com/2hd0c4p). Parental concerns about media use are rising, too — fuelled by headlines and political pronouncements. On 2 October 2018, Matt Hancock, UK secretary of state for health, issued an urgent warning, saying that the threat to children’s mental health from social media is similar to that from sugar to their physical health.
In cases of such significant public concern, it often falls to the scientific community to provide and assess evidence, and then make some recommendations. But scientific research in this field has its own challenges, and almost as many uncertainties.
Cont'd.
LINK:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00137-6