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The Edwardsville Intelligencer featured Dyson Professor Brenna Hassinger-Das piece "Parents, cut yourself some slack on screen time limits while you're stuck at home"
(THE CONVERSATION) As families hunker down during the coronavirus pandemic, many parents may wonder how much screen time they should let their kids have. Brenna Hassinger-Das, a scholar of children and technology, shares one rule it’s OK to break, one rule parents can bend and a best practice worth upholding.
1. Break: Previous daily screen time limits
The American Academy of Pediatrics warns parents that letting children spend too much time watching TV shows or playing video games on any device can make them more anxious, reduce their ability to control impulses and disturb their sleep. How much screen time varies by age. The doctors’ group advises avoiding all screen time, aside from video chats, for babies and toddlers up to 18 months old, and sets gradually increasing limits after that.
Between the ages of 2 and 5, for instance, the academy estimates that kids can safely get up to an hour of daily screen time, as long as their parents or caregivers join in. It advises parents of kids 6 and up to consistently limit time spent using digital media and to make sure that screen time doesn’t displace sleep or physical activity.
