{"id":42897,"date":"2026-07-19T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=42897"},"modified":"2026-08-18T00:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:16:19","slug":"screen-time-guidelines-for-kids-and-adolescents-have-shifted-as-research-paints-a-more-nuanced-picture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/screen-time-guidelines-for-kids-and-adolescents-have-shifted-as-research-paints-a-more-nuanced-picture\/","title":{"rendered":"Screen time guidelines for kids and adolescents have shifted as research paints a more nuanced picture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gabriel E. Hales<\/a>, Michigan State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concerns surrounding young people\u2019s screen time are widespread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia became the first country to ban social media for users under 16<\/a> in December 2025, and Denmark<\/a>, France<\/a> and the U.K.<\/a> have since announced similar restrictions to begin this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the U.S., as of mid-2026, more than 30 states have passed laws banning or restricting cellphones<\/a> in K\u201312 classrooms; in 2023, the U.S. surgeon general issued a formal advisory<\/a> on social media and children\u2019s and adolescents\u2019 mental health; and bestselling books<\/a> tell parents that smartphones are \u201crewiring\u201d their children\u2019s brains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These concerns and policies are part of a quickly changing national and international conversation around how young people spend time on screens and its relationship to their overall health and development. My reading of the mounting research on this issue across disciplines<\/a> is that the popular narrative blaming screens and smartphones for an adolescent mental health crisis runs well ahead of the current evidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I study adolescent digital media use<\/a> and its influence on social, emotional and academic outcomes. A growing body of research suggests that one-size-fits-all solutions are not the answer<\/a> and that managing appropriate use of digital media needs to take into account a child\u2019s developmental milestones, how parents and adults around them use media, and the ways kids use it to connect and learn with friends and family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screen time: From monolith to multifaceted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Wide adoption of digital media and the internet broadened the range of experiences young people could have online. At the same time, the digital age introduced newfound uncertainties. As with the advent of radio, comic books and arcades<\/a>, adults worried about how children might interact with or be affected by internet use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, the American Academy of Pediatrics first recommended in 1999 that parents and caregivers keep children under 2 away from screens<\/a>. In the decades since, professional guidance largely treated children\u2019s media use as a behavior to be mitigated<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Policies introduced by the academy in 2013 and 2016 continued to advise that school-age kids and adolescents \u2013 those ages 5 to 18 \u2013 be restricted to no more than two hours<\/a> of \u201centertainment\u201d screen time a day. The goal was to curb risks associated with heavy media use<\/a>, among them disrupted sleep, online safety, cyberbullying and physical inactivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally created for young people\u2019s engagement with stationary media that tend to be confined to one room or context \u2013 for example, watching television \u2013 these hourly limits became outdated with the integration of smartphones and other digital devices into everyday life. Compared with watching television, online media was far more difficult to track and define<\/a>, and more nuanced in its use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developmentally beneficial activities such as education<\/a>, socializing and leisure<\/a> have come to rely on the internet to extend and maintain<\/a> face-to-face connections. Remote schooling and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated this digitization of daily life<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my view, adopting strict time limits and restrictions could pose risks to children\u2019s well-being<\/a>, autonomy and development<\/a>, for example, by harming adolescent self-esteem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest guidelines<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In January 2026, the American Academy of Pediatrics retired its decade-old framework that had largely organized its advice around hourly screen limits<\/a>. The new policy statement<\/a> on children, adolescents and digital media diverges from this blanket approach. Instead, it suggests parents consider the larger picture in which this media use exists rather than lumping all screen use together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to the World Health Organization\u2019s 2019 guidance<\/a> for children under 5, the American Academy of Pediatrics still advises that parents avoid screen media for children younger than 18 months<\/a>. This recommendation is largely because extended use by children by themselves can be problematic for many young children, crowding out important developmental milestones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics also recommend that when children under 24 months use screens, they should be limited to content and devices that encourage children and caregivers to interact. For ages 2 to 5, screen time \u2013 including TV and interactive apps on devices \u2013 may be extended to more solo use, provided it\u2019s high-quality digital media designed around learning goals in mathematics and reading. But recreational use should be limited to roughly an hour per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For school-age children and teens, the newest guidance has begun to step away from fixed screen time limits<\/a> and asks families to weigh online activity in the context of everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing so recognizes that a child\u2019s digital experiences are shaped by diverse factors<\/a> rather than the hours spent online. Current guidelines call on caregivers to distinguish among types of media<\/a>, from television and social media to video games and interacting with artificial intelligence chatbots. They also call for taking into account a child\u2019s individual characteristics, such as their interests and personality, family members\u2019 own use of screens, and the type of content children are spending time on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rethinking screen time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Moving beyond strict screen time limits includes questioning the kind of digital activities kids and adolescents participate in. Do the activities encourage time spent interacting with others online, which can help young people develop important skills and competencies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scrolling an algorithm-based, auto-playing video feed likely does not equate to the same opportunities as video-chatting with friends, creating digital art or working with teammates in a multiplayer game. Research suggests these different uses relate to development in different ways<\/a> and can help kids develop varying skill sets<\/a> pertaining to everyday life and schooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, a large review of current research<\/a> found that young people who take part in a range of digital activities, such as browsing the web, online gaming or interacting on social media, show positive associations with social connection, identity exploration, civic participation and learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Parental involvement in young children\u2019s screen time has developmental benefits. Cultura Creative\/Tetra images via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Using these guidelines at home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The current evidence suggests parents and caregivers are best positioned to be digital instructors. Cutting children off altogether can carry its own risks<\/a> for social and emotional development. Caregiver mediation of children\u2019s screen time can produce widely different outcomes and effects<\/a>, depending on whether the guidance is supportive or controlling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering your own digital media use is the first step: Are family members engaging in problematic or heavy media use that children in the household might emulate? What applications and uses are most common in the family, and what positive or negative effects might they have, depending on the child\u2019s age? How could these digital activities be safely integrated with other everyday experiences to increase their benefit for children? Conversely, what online time might be better spent on face-to-face experiences?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American Academy of Pediatrics\u2019 Family Media Plan<\/a> tool turns these ideas into concrete questions. For example, it recommends working out what each child needs from digital technology, what activities screens might be crowding out, and where their family or household can build in screen-free time. The recommendation is to talk with each child about why they are drawn to particular apps or online activities, what they encounter while browsing, and what might be lost when kids bring phones to gatherings such as mealtimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate over young people\u2019s screen time is not going away. But the most up-to-date guidelines, and the growing body of research behind them, make a strong case for a more holistic approach. The guidelines treat digital media as a complex, diverse and evolving environment that children need to learn to navigate in the digital age. The risks and rewards depend, as with any developmental setting, on the child, the content and what online time might be crowding out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gabriel E. Hales<\/a>, Research Fellow in Media and Information, Michigan State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gabriel E. Hales, Michigan State University Concerns surrounding young people\u2019s screen time are widespread. Australia became the first country to ban social media for users under 16 in December 2025, and Denmark, France and the U.K. have since announced similar restrictions to begin this year. In the U.S., as of mid-2026, more than 30 states […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":42898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,292,291,10,36,38,8],"tags":[2387,17952,885,891,886,860,200,2710,702,17953,255,3134],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42899,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42897\/revisions\/42899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}