To think current concerns over screen time is bordering hysteria

I think this is why we have an explosion of anxious and otherwise fucked-up kids checking out of society for a life indoors on benefits, kids starting school not knowing how to "use" a book etc etc

Parents are screwing up their kids with screens for a quiet life and probably to buy themselves some doomscrolling time. 6 and 2 years old FFS! I'm a single parent and don't find it necessary.

I don't think the general public does well with nuance and, in general, screens are bad for kids. Public health advice needs to be simplistic and straightforward. Of course there are exceptions, kids with SEND using them for regulation come to mind. But most kids would be better off without the use of a personal device so I fully support that being the advice. My kids are 7 and 3 and neither of them have ever used a tablet or phone, I fundamentally believe that choice has been in their best interests.

My son and husband both have ADHD, it's one of the reasons we are so strict about screen time. It's an instant dopamine hit which is even more difficult for a child with ADHD to put down. DH as someone managing ADHD also likes that we have no screens at the table, TV is off and no phones during meals, if we are watching a film together or playing a board game etc phones are on the coffee table not in our hands. DS has no small screen at all, no tablet and we've never let him use our phones, he doesn't have TV during the week, between school, homework and activities there isn't really time anyway tbh. He watches a little at the weekends but mostly things we all watch together, he loves Lego masters for example or gladiators. He's 7.

Smartphones and tablets have commonplace for kids for about 15 years.

There were plenty of 2-working parent families before that. The majority in fact.

People act like prior to 2000 or even later were halcyon days with Mums all being SAMH and all families were living on one income.

They weren't.

The last time single income families were more commonplace than not was the 60s.

And it wasn't the norm for working class families where women usually had to work.

I agree there weren’t iPads but most families had a tv in the 90s! I did and I wasn’t well off!

Watching tv is quite different from using a handheld device, though. Your posture is different, for a start. And tv wasn't available 24/7 when I was growing up, and you couldn't carry it around with you. And before remote controls you couldn't sit on the sofa flipping through the channels.

And watching old drama series on YouTube, it's noticeable that viewers were expected to have longer attention spans. Scenes were longer and characters had extended conversations.

I use the internet a lot as a research tool in my professional capacity. It has huge benefits in that respect. But I also recognise the potential for time wasting, the temptation to reach for a device and scroll rather than doing something more productive. And I do know better. Children who are given devices when they've barely learned to talk have no chance.

What rot!

(Actual solo parent here.)

You are making excuses.

Whilst much of the focus on screen time has been about children especially early years, I think the impacts may go on throughout life. Loneliness among older people especially has known health effects, and if the basics of socialising and time spent with others is reduced or lost because people are behind a screen, it may be something affecting a wide range of ages.

totally agree with this and very happy that my youngest is about to turn 16 so we wont be affected

It was Covid and lockdown not gaming.

No socialisation at essential ages

You are the "We should improve society somewhat" / "Yet you participate in society! Curious! I am very intelligent." meme come to live, goodness.

Modern parenting can be intense, with high expectations and little support. Screens can ease this pressure. I agree with this.

It still doesn't follow that concern around screen time is hysteria, just because it is working for you. I mean obviously it's not crack, but there have been numerous studies on this, it isn't just plucked from the air.

One of the big issues on 'screentime' is how many different things it encompasses. I think the questions are what is screen time replacing, for that child, and what is it adding, as we still have the same 24 hours in each day as any other generation.
To pick some extreme examples that are very much not the same

• A 2 year old spending a hours most days watching a tablet screen with you tube autoplay, eyes glazed and zoned out of surroundings
• a 2 year old watching 20 mins of Bluey on a TV they can't control whilst a parent shouts comments about the story while cooking dinner each night
• a 12 year old playing online games in the living room whilst chatting to their real-world mates, for an hour after school
• a 12 year old scrolling tiktok in their bed at midnight and missing out on sleep.

I'm an older mum, so was a younger kid in the 80s. I had a reputation for 'square eyes' - viewing lots of TV wasn't seen as great then either, but it was limited to the 90 mins of live kids TV available between school and dinner time (we didn't have sky, or a video player). If the weather was good and the neighbours were home I really would be out playing in the street with them, and this wasn't neglectful parenting. But I now have major screen time issues of my own and would love to give my child the skills to manage this in a healthy way...

So you know it's always existed then right?

And we didn't have the situation that we do know where kids are starting school unable to turn a page in a book or put their coats on?

And we didn't have to have parenting groups where people have to be taught how to play with their children or help them to learn how to entertain themselves, wait for things or just regulate themselves because the default is to give them a screen?

Because that's what's happening.

And the screens are different now, to TV.

Rainbow on TV, playschool or chocoblock or Tots TV was a few minutes where a child could be occupied so Mum could put a load of washing on. So long as they were able to watch at the time it was on and weren't asleep or doing something else. At home.

Not 24/7 access to constant content wherever you are so now you get parents using them as a constant source of entertainment and the minute the parent wants to do something or the DC grizzles, is bored or complains, a screen is given.

Everywhere. All the time.

I see Mums on buses on a 10 minute journey handing a toddler in a buggy a screen while Mum scrolls through her 'phone.

We are all adults and our brains have finished developing, though. That’s the same as saying it’s hypocritical to have a gin and tonic if you don’t give one to your toddler.

It’s the type of screen time which is the crucial difference. There’s a huge difference between kids watching CBeebies on the family tv, and YouTube brain rot on their own tablet. It’s the swiping to change the short videos that ruins you by giving you small hits of dopamine.

I’m nearly 40, as a child I watched all of the cartoons that terrestrial tv had to offer from early Saturday morning until lunchtime. Then got dressed. I think I turned out ok! Got a decent career, happy family life etc.

My kids are allowed a couple of hours of TV in the evenings if it’s just on the family tv and they don’t constantly change the channel. I think that’s fine. My 4 year old has got into David Attenborough documentaries 😅 he likes learning about the animals

The Anxious Generation is a good book to read about the subject if anyone is interested

Opposite imo.

We've sleepwalked into a situation where in homes across the country young children are being exposed to something that is harmful to them, deprived of things that are beneficial (when you're watching TV you're not moving your body, reading a book, practising holding a pen, socialising with peers), and ending up babysat. It's emotional neglect at high levels.

I find it fascinating you can walk through a restaurant now and 90% of the tables with kids have the children glued to screens, the whole meal. No conversation. No practicing ordering. No learning manners when eating out. Just being mentally anaesthetised to make it through something that should be a treat.

The harms of screen time are studied and if you read the studies they are fairly nuanced already. You can say you put your own convenience above some level of harm to the child but I don’t understand the point of saying the impact doesn’t exist. It’s measured. It’s like saying climate change is a hoax so that you don’t have to curtail your emissions. Screens even affect the hormones released by the body.
Video games and TV programmes a couple of decades ago are completely different to what they are now, espescially given streaming, and can’t be compared. Being a technology user now requires no skill at all and won’t lead to a career the way it used to.
You would have an argument that you can’t compare NT and ND children in technology use, though.

I may be wrong but I think SM was the reason for the SEN diagnosis spike.
And half i see i dont think they have it, they just want a reason to get away with acting like twits.

Really? Have you actually read any research papers that offer this conclusion?

What’s the betting that most of the ‘research’ carried out focussed on number of hours of screen time and not the disposition of the children themselves.

I strongly suspect that if the research compared outcomes from NT and ND kids, it would reach completely different conclusions for the two groups.

As for using the past to laud superior parenting values, that’s completely laughable.

As an ND person, I was left by school and my parents to just get on with it as they had no understanding of supporting someone different like me and thousands of other ND kids.

Luckily, I gave DS a mini iPad for his 4th birthday and he’s thrived using Tech. He was already a good reader when starting school and used technology during lockdown to teach himself the basics of several languages inc. Russian and Japanese whilst still in primary school.

ND people are usually the ones being bullied rather than the perpetrators. Don’t deprive them of technology just because you can’t parent NT kids adequately.

An adult using a screen is very very different to a child's developing brain. Do some research.

So if I was sat drinking my first glass of wine in a month, and I myself drink well below government guidelines, I wouldnt be allowed to say 'drinking 6 crates of beer a week isnt good for you'? Not sure what you mean...

I seen a toddler with a massive tablet (didn't even know they came that huge) strapped up inches from her face in a pushchair. Absolutely tragic

I don't think that because you disagree with it, it's 'hysteria'. It's just that some people are more concerned than others. It's important to be clear though. Do you think that generally screens are fine? If so, the fact that you are a single parent with limited support is not relevant. It sounds like actually you accept that excessive screen time is not ideal, but you use it because it's the least-bad option in the situation you're in. That's fine and obviously if the alternative is that you can't cope, or you shout excessively or your kids are destroying the house, clearly screen time is preferable.

Personally I went down a restricted route because I am concerned about the way touchscreens and gaming train the brain to seek dopamine. I don't want that for my kids. I'm happy with them watching normal TV but other screens are just so compelling (by design) it's easier not to have them.

I think the volume has increased on the anti-screen narrative, particularly for kids, because it has just gone so far. It's completely normal now for kids to have their own tablet. For screens to be ubiquitous in schools. For primary-aged children to have smartphones. In my opinion it's positive that society is asking whether these things are actually good and necessary.

Even in the last 10 years screen time for children has exploded. I work in early years and almost all the under 5s have their own devices now.

Attention span, patience and concentration skills are minimal (I'm talking about reasonable expectations for each age group), table manners, language skills, general behaviour have all declined significantly in the last 10 years. The amount of undsr 2s who need screens to hold in the car or to fall asleep or to watch whilst eating is horrendous!

You typed this on a screen. As did every person preaching in this thread. The hypocrisy is wild.