Screen time

Screen time is the amount of time spent using a device such as a computer, television, or video game console. It can be an element of a sedentary lifestyle.

The term screen time has been usually referred to in a negative context as the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) advises parents to limit the screen time for children. The phenomenon itself has existed since the technology has been available to the general public. The installation of television by Americans was more rapid over the 1950’s than any other information and communication technology to come before. With the increase in the technological advances, the use of devices consisting of screens, such as TV, computers, laptops and cell phones, increased resulting in the increase in screen time. In the late 1990’s, adolescents spent an average of 1.5 to 2.5 hours per day watching television. Similar averages are present across nations North America and Europe as well as Japan and Korea. Experts have suggested that excessive screen time is harmful especially if the content is violent. Several attempts have been made to reduce or control screen time. In the 1970’s the “television-free” movement emerged which appeal to reduce the screen time. The Children’s Television Act (1990) provides the children with more educational programming and the Telecommunication Act of 1996 grants parents a way to control the television content. Both of the Acts put restrictions on how the screen time is used.

American Academy of Pediatrics (SAP) recommends limiting screen time for elementary children to two hours per day. Screen time is anything that deals with a screen not a book. For example, computers, television, phone, iPad, and etc. It is the parents' responsibility to limit the children's screen time (Jago, Wood, Zahra, Thompson, & Sebire, 2015). The authors of, "Parental Control, Nurturance, Self-Efficacy, and Screen Viewing Among 5- to 6-Year-Olds: A Cross-Sectional Mediation Analysis to Inform Potential Behavior Change Strategies", share that the different types of parenting styles are related to screen time of the child. It is the parents' job to limit screen time. Also, it is more advised for the parents to focus on enforcing screen time limits on weekends and vacations, as opposed to week days; there is more unstructured time on weekends versus week days.

How much screen time a child receives may depend on socioeconomic status and race. Too much screen time can affect a child's health. Research in the United States states that African-American (69%) and Hispanic (68%) children have rates of a television in the bedroom that are twice as high compared to white children (28%). Children consume an extra 167 calories per day for every hour of television viewing. TV viewing also causes an increase in fast food consumption and more time spent playing video game is linked to an increase in weight in children. The key to screen time is to balance screen time and active time, and a child will have no problems.

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