Three Quarters of Children Younger Than Two Not Meeting Screen Time Guidelines, Experts

Having resources to improve the teaching and learning environment their children learn under. (Shutterstock)

A study conducted by the University of Calgary in Canada into screentime of children globally found that around 75.3 percent of children aged under two and 64.4 percent of children aged two to five in these studies exceed guidelines for screentime in pre-pandemic periods.

The current screentime guidelines globally are generally recommended to be no screentime at all for children less than two and one hour per day for children aged two to five.

The researchers, led by Brae Anne McArthur, analysed and reviewed studies from around the world to see the proportion of children meeting screentime guidelines, including studies from the U.S., Canada, Australia, UK,  EU members Finland, Italy, Sweden, Hungary, and Greece, as well as Singapore and China.

With screentime increasing during the pandemic, the authors only utilised data from the year 1999 to months prior to the pandemic for a more accurate perspective of children’s screentime in normal circumstances.

The authors found that around one in four children younger than two years could meet the guideline of no screentime, and one in three children aged two to five could meet the one hour per day guideline.

The one hour a day recommendation and implementation globally across many Western countries are due to studies that showed correlations of increased screentime correlating with poorer developmental outcomes in children at preschool years of age.

However, another Canadian study in 2020 suggested that the screen time children are exposed to may merely be a contextual factor; families that experience higher parental stress and lower household income are commonly associated with increased child screen exposure which may be contributors to lower outcomes in developmental examinations.

Nonetheless, with the current screentime recommendations set, the authors found that for children aged two to five, the majority of the participants could reach a 2-hour-daily limit, with 56 percent of children falling into this category.

Additionally, when screentime for this age group only took into consideration time spent leisurely on TV and movies, children were more likely to meet the one hour guideline whereas, for children younger than two, their primary consumption of screentime is through movie and TV and will therefore be more likely to meet the guidelines if this form of activity is removed.

The authors found that though there has been an increase of children younger than two meeting screentime guidelines in more recent studies analysed, the proportion for children aged two to five has not changed.

Nonetheless, the team acknowledged that it is harder to monitor children aged from two to five due to newer influxes of media consumption such as tablets in addition to TV. Additionally, it may be possible that the methods to measure adherence are changing, and earlier studies may not have considered mobile use as screentime as opposed to now.

The authors concluded that with young children as the fastest-growing users of digital media, parents are often reporting that their children’s screen use is a “top parenting concern.”

“Policy changes directed at industry, such as easier and more transparent device settings, could help families better set limits,” the authors wrote.

“Industry elimination of ads from programming and apps directed at children would support healthier outcomes. Digital media are now a regular part of young children’s lives, and supporting families to best fit evidence-based recommendations into their daily routines needs to be a priority.”