5 things parents can do to reduce screen time of their children for mental well-being

Screen time! The word itself is like pouring petrol into the fire when it comes to parents and children. Ensuring that your child stays away from any kind of digital gadget is an uphill task for parents in this day and age. Almost everybody has an opinion on how much should children be allowed screen time.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, kids today spend approximately seven hours a day consuming entertainment media, including TV, phones, computers, and other electronic devices.

Today, most smartphones have a feature where the users can track their screen time. For example, Apple’s screen time limit feature is useful for people who spend too much time on their iPhones and want to improve their productivity. Some teenagers have an iPhone and parents can track and limit their kids’ app usage, view statistics about their device usage, and restrict app usage using the App Limits option.

So, what is the recommended screen time? According to the World Health Organization (WHO) newborns – zero to two years – should not be exposed to even a second of screen time. For ages two-four years, toddlers should only be allowed an hour of supervised screen time. Once the child is four years old and till the age of six, the screen time should be limited to one-and-a-half hours with adult supervision.

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Parents need to understand the importance of limiting their child’s screen time. Kids above the age of seven binge-watching series on OTT. This is hurting their brain. Complaints of sleep and eating disorders, and unable to concentrate on studies are rising

–Dr Priyanka Puri, consultant, Child Psychology at Sir HN Reliance Hospital

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There are some parents like Dr Nupur Sud, whose son Aakarsh is in LKG at Apeejay School, Mahavir Marg who ensure that their child has only half an hour of TV watching and that too it is supervised. “I ensure that he only watches 30 minutes of TV and he has no access to a smartphone,” Dr Sud said.

“The WHO doesn’t recommend more than two hours of screen time for kids till they reach adulthood. Irrespective of exams or no exams, parents must ensure that their kids don’t spend more than the recommended hours of screen time on any digital gadget and this includes watching TV,” Dr Priyanka Puri, consultant, Child Psychology at Sir HN Reliance Hospital advises.

Parents need to understand the importance of limiting their child’s screen time. “I see so many kids come to me, especially those above the age of seven who are finding it difficult to concentrate during their exams. The reason is the excessive time that they had been spending on their gadgets. Kids in this age group are binge-watching series on OTT. This is hurting their brain. Complaints of sleep and eating disorders, unable to concentrate on studies, and increased anxiety and fear are rising due to the content that they are watching,” Dr Puri said.

She added that several games have just as disturbing video games. “These games have very dark content – violence, killing, and manipulation. These are heavy emotions and when a child is exposed to them at such a young age, it affects the mind. Irrespective of the time frame, excessive screen time is detrimental to the health of the child,” Dr Puri opined.

The worst thing, Dr Puri said that overexposure to screen time over a prolonged period can lead to brain issues. “In other words, the brain loses the ability to control impulses; this creates a lot of frustration in the child; it reduces empathy, affects sleep, and eating habits get affected that causes poor nutrition and health in the child and finally it hampers concentration. This in turn affects your memory, attention span, and problem-solving abilities which means that the child will have poor performance in school. It has also been found that speech development of toddlers in the ages of two-six is getting affected because they are all time looking at the screen,” Dr Puri said.

“The child must know that there are house rules and they must abide by them. This habit must be introduced right from a young age so that the child knows that this is the norm. This can only happen if the parents also do the same – that they too stay away from their gadgets,” Dr Puri said in conclusion.