This film addresses the challenges elementary school–aged children, parents, and educators face in today’s digital world, including early exposure to online content, social media pressures, device distractions in the classroom, moderating video game use and behavior, and rising sleep deprivation among youth.
Screenagers: Elementary School Age Edition offers research-based insights from experts such as Jonathan Haidt, Anna Lembke, and many others, real-world stories from families and schools, and practical solutions to help support healthy tech habits during the early years.
Runtimes: Original Version: 56 Minutes, Classroom Version: 26 Minutes.
Available now for licensing - click here to inquire.
Are you watching children become accustomed to technology at increasingly younger ages, drawn to stimulating online content, video games, and early social media exposure?
Physician and filmmaker Delaney Ruston began asking these questions as she observed how much time kids spend on screens, the growing tension this creates at home and in school, and rising sleep deprivation among youth. What does all this screen time mean for children’s learning, development, and overall well-being?
In Screenagers: Elementary School Age Edition, Dr. Ruston takes a deeply personal approach, exploring the vulnerable corners of family life, including her own, while seeking solutions to challenges such as setting limits, managing device distractions in school, moderating video game use, and navigating exposure to online content at too young an age.
Featuring insights from experts such as Jonathan Haidt, Anna Lembke, and many others, along with real-world stories from families and schools, the film examines how technology impacts children’s development and offers practical guidance to help kids build healthier relationships with screens and find balance in a digital world.
LOVE IT! Very timely and engaging
The interviews are very powerful. Love seeing the real dialogue between parents and kids
It doesn't just discuss smartphones, but also smartwatches, tablets and computers
Casts light on the impacts of too much screen time on young minds
The film does a great job addressing issues younger kids would face
I hope parents, teachers & schools will watch this together
Delaney Ruston chose her two career paths of primary care physician and documentary filmmaker for one reason: to help create positive change in people’s lives. Her experiences receiving medical care in free clinics while growing up motivated her to pursue health care. During her medicine residency, she began studying filmmaking for social impact and made her first award-winning film.
For twenty years Delaney has split her time between providing primary care and creating short and feature-length documentaries, such as "Screenagers", "Screenagers Next Chapter", and "Screenagers Under The Influence". Examples of her other films include "Unlisted: A Story of Schizophrenia" about her father and "Hidden Pictures" about global mental health. These films have been screened widely, aired on PBS, and were at the forefront of advocacy campaigns, including with the World Health Organization. For her work in using films to building movements, Delaney has won several awards including Harvard’s McLean National Council Recognition Award and New York’s Fountain House Advocacy Award.
Delaney trained at Stanford Medical School, followed by a medicine residency at UC San Francisco. She has practiced and taught medicine in diverse settings including faculty positions at The University of Washington School of Medicine and at The Center for Medical Humanities, Bioethics and Compassionate Care at Stony Brook School of Medicine, NY.
Ruston has conducted investigative research in diverse fields—including biophysics at NIH, bioethics, and communication at UCSF and behavioral health as a Fulbright Scholar. She has spent the past six years intensely researching the impact of screen time on youth and solutions for screen time balance.
Lisa Tabb is a distinguished producer with a rich background in digital media and parenting. She co-produced the four Screenagers Movies and co-directed Screenagers Under The Influence: Addressing Vaping, Drugs, and Alcohol. She also co-produces The Screenagers Podcast and edits the “Screenagers’ Tech Talk Tuesday weekly blog. Tabb has made significant contributions to the global discourse on youth screen time, with the films reaching over 10 million individuals in more than 100 countries. Her publishing achievements include Parenting in the Digital Age: A Guide to Calm Conversation. Before her foray into film, she spent 15 years at ABC 7 News in San Francisco, focusing on parenting trends and emerging technologies.
Prof. Social Psychology, NYU, Author, The Anxious Generation
Author & Child Psychologist
Author, Reclaiming Conversation
Psychology Researcher Iowa State University
Child Psychologist & Author
Child Development Researcher, Seattle Children’s Hospital
Author, Cinderella Ate My Daughter
Dir. of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Prof., Stony Brook Medicine, Editor-In-Chief, Sleep Health
Pediatrician, Seattle Children’s Hospital
Chief of Stanford Addiction Medicine, Author, Dopamine Nation
Psychologist, Co-Founder Restart: Internet Rehab
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