{"id":6889,"date":"2015-10-13T05:13:29","date_gmt":"2015-10-13T12:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/3.0\/?p=6889"},"modified":"2015-10-13T05:13:29","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T12:13:29","slug":"is-the-american-academy-of-pediatrics-copping-out-on-kids-screen-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/is-the-american-academy-of-pediatrics-copping-out-on-kids-screen-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the American Academy of Pediatrics Copping Out on Kids\u2019 Screen Time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kids-with-tablets\"<\/a>According to a recent article<\/a> titled, \u201cPediatricians to tweak \u2018outdated\u2019 screen time recommendations for kids,\u201d the American Academy of Pediatrics, that esteemed organization charged with protecting the health and well-being of children, has decided that their recommendations of limited screen time\u2014basically no screen time for children under 2 years old and only two hours a day for teenagers\u2014need to be updated.<\/p>\n

Expected in 2016, updating old policies can be a good thing as a way to keep current and consistent with the latest thinking and research. But, according to the article, all indications are that the changes are heading in the wrong direction. \u201cDr. Ari Brown,<\/a>\u00a0chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ group investigating media use, explains, \u2018Look at our world. It has changed … and so we have to approach the world as it is and figure out ways to make it work.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt times have changed since the AAP originally offered their guidelines back in 1999, an eternity in technology years. According to a survey<\/a> from Common Sense Media, 30% of children use screens before they\u2019re even potty trained and almost a quarter of teenagers are connected almost all of the time. Technology has become an almost inseparable appendage to most young people. Adds Brown, the original limits are \u201cjust not the reality of what’s happening and so we really need to kind of address our world as these kids are growing up as digital natives.\u201d<\/p>\n

I appreciate the AAP\u2019s desire to align their recommendations with the current reality. But the direction that the organization appears to be going is the exact opposite of where it should be going given the growing body of research demonstrating the increasingly harmful effects (along with some benefits) that screen time is having on children\u2019s cognitive, emotional, social, and educational development.<\/p>\n

Dr. Brown recommends how parents should use technology with their children, \u201cAnd so you would sit down in the real world and play with your child, you would pretend and have a tea party. Well the same rules apply. You don’t just park your kid in front of a screen and make them go play by themselves. If you sit down and play with them on that screen, on that technology, they’re going to get more out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the problem. Parents don\u2019t park their children in front of a screen because they want to engage with them to promote their healthy development. Rather, the single biggest reason parents put their kids in front of a screen is because it\u2019s expedient; it frees parents to focus on their own needs.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. There\u2019s no harm in doing that periodically; parents need time to bathe, read the newspaper, and connect with friends. But this practice seems to be the rule, not the exception, in many families these days.<\/p>\n

Dr. Brown further explains: \u201cWhat we learn is that we as humans are very much social beasts and we are really learning by engaging with other humans and so the more that a digital technology can approximate that, the more a young child can get out of it.\u201d My question is why should parents have their children \u201cengage with other humans\u201d through a medium that might \u201capproximate\u201d real human engagement when they could actually engage with other humans directly?<\/p>\n

Increasing the limits allowed for kids\u2019 screen time or not offering time limits at all, either of which seem to be directions that the AAP is considering, flies in the face of the fact that kids these days are already way out of balance in their use of technology. Attesting to this, the Kaiser Family Foundation<\/a> has reported that kids spend, on average, more than 7 \u00bd hours a day in front of non-school-related screens. It seems pretty clear that kids need limits on screen time placed on them.<\/p>\n

Suggesting that the guidelines need to be changed because they are out of touch with current use is akin to increasing what is deemed a healthy amount of sugar because kids are consuming more sugar these days than in previous generations. Times change, what is healthy for kids doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no Luddite. I recognize that kids will use technology. And there is no doubt that technology can play a positive role in children\u2019s lives. But it\u2019s pretty darned clear to anyone who observes kids these days that the last thing they and their parents need is permission to use technology more than they currently are. Moreover, another message that came through the article was that it\u2019s okay to spend a lot of time with technology as long as it\u2019s educational and social. Here\u2019s another problem. Most of the time children spend in front of a screen is neither educational nor social.<\/p>\n

Dr. Brown further asserts that, \u201cNo parent should feel guilty about their choices, we just want them to make educated and informed choices.\u201d The AAP shouldn\u2019t relax its guidelines because they make parents feel guilty about plopping their children in front of a screen. Educating and informing parents is a vital role of the AAP, so it needs to ensure that parents are educated and informed with information that supports healthy choices, not appeases or enables them.<\/p>\n

The AAP shouldn\u2019t change the guidelines because most parents won\u2019t follow sensible time limits; most parents still let their children eat tons of junk food despite knowing how unhealthy it is.<\/p>\n

The AAP should stand on the principle of what is best for children\u2014isn\u2019t that its job?\u2014however out of touch with reality it is. The AAP should follow the research, not popular sentiment or practices, because, if the organization goes down this rabbit hole, they will lose their integrity, relevance, and ability to positively shape how children are raised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a recent article titled, \u201cPediatricians to tweak \u2018outdated\u2019 screen time recommendations for kids,\u201d the American Academy of Pediatrics, that esteemed organization charged with protecting the health and well-being of children, has decided that their recommendations of limited screen time\u2014basically no screen time for children under 2 years old and only two hours a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1525,1526],"tags":[497,41,505,64,620,290,498,105,209,1094,81],"class_list":["post-6889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-parenting","category-technology","tag-apps","tag-children","tag-computers","tag-parents","tag-screen-time","tag-smartphones","tag-tablets","tag-technology-2","tag-television","tag-time-limits","tag-video-games"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drjimtaylor.com\/4.0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}