People often ask me how much screen time is healthy. That’s a hard one because each family is different and what I hope for is that parents can help kids find balance with all this screen time. Recently I ran into Dimitri Christakis, MD, who is in Screenagers and is very involved in helping to formulate the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) guidelines on screen time and kids, and he said the AAP are working hard to come up with something that is balanced, doable and data driven knowing how pervasive screens are in our culture.
Recently, the AAP released an article published in the AAP News with a preliminary outline of where the recommendations are headed. This first update since the guidelines were created in 1999 is titled “Beyond ‘turn it off’: How to advise families on media use," and contains the following:
“In a world where ‘screen time’ is becoming simply ‘time,’ our policies must evolve or become obsolete. The public needs to know that the Academy’s advice is science-driven, not based merely on the precautionary principle.”
The new guidelines are expected to be released in October 2016. In a recent NPR interview, David Hill, MD and chairman of the AAP Council on Communications and Media, offered some insights what’s behind the AAP’s thinking.
“The question before us is whether electronic media use in children is more akin to diet or to tobacco use,” explains Dr. Hill. “With diet, harm reduction measures seem to be turning the tide of the obesity epidemic. With tobacco, on the other hand, there really is no safe level of exposure at any age. My personal opinion is that the diet analogy will end up being more apt."
“While we acknowledged that mobile and interactive screens have become ubiquitous in children's lives, we did not advocate for their wholesale adoption,” expands Dr. Hill. “I suspect that when they do come out, the statements will be highly conservative, reinforcing much of what we have said in the past about the known effects of electronic media use on child health and development.”
Elements of the Coming Guidelines
In the meantime, here is a subset of the “messages” published in the October 2015 issue of AAP News from the AAP’s May 2015 conference:
Here is a video from the Screenagers YouTube Channel that talks more about this subject
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People often ask me how much screen time is healthy. That’s a hard one because each family is different and what I hope for is that parents can help kids find balance with all this screen time. Recently I ran into Dimitri Christakis, MD, who is in Screenagers and is very involved in helping to formulate the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) guidelines on screen time and kids, and he said the AAP are working hard to come up with something that is balanced, doable and data driven knowing how pervasive screens are in our culture.
Recently, the AAP released an article published in the AAP News with a preliminary outline of where the recommendations are headed. This first update since the guidelines were created in 1999 is titled “Beyond ‘turn it off’: How to advise families on media use," and contains the following:
“In a world where ‘screen time’ is becoming simply ‘time,’ our policies must evolve or become obsolete. The public needs to know that the Academy’s advice is science-driven, not based merely on the precautionary principle.”
The new guidelines are expected to be released in October 2016. In a recent NPR interview, David Hill, MD and chairman of the AAP Council on Communications and Media, offered some insights what’s behind the AAP’s thinking.
“The question before us is whether electronic media use in children is more akin to diet or to tobacco use,” explains Dr. Hill. “With diet, harm reduction measures seem to be turning the tide of the obesity epidemic. With tobacco, on the other hand, there really is no safe level of exposure at any age. My personal opinion is that the diet analogy will end up being more apt."
“While we acknowledged that mobile and interactive screens have become ubiquitous in children's lives, we did not advocate for their wholesale adoption,” expands Dr. Hill. “I suspect that when they do come out, the statements will be highly conservative, reinforcing much of what we have said in the past about the known effects of electronic media use on child health and development.”
Elements of the Coming Guidelines
In the meantime, here is a subset of the “messages” published in the October 2015 issue of AAP News from the AAP’s May 2015 conference:
Here is a video from the Screenagers YouTube Channel that talks more about this subject
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People often ask me how much screen time is healthy. That’s a hard one because each family is different and what I hope for is that parents can help kids find balance with all this screen time. Recently I ran into Dimitri Christakis, MD, who is in Screenagers and is very involved in helping to formulate the American Academy of Pediatrics’ (AAP) guidelines on screen time and kids, and he said the AAP are working hard to come up with something that is balanced, doable and data driven knowing how pervasive screens are in our culture.
Recently, the AAP released an article published in the AAP News with a preliminary outline of where the recommendations are headed. This first update since the guidelines were created in 1999 is titled “Beyond ‘turn it off’: How to advise families on media use," and contains the following:
“In a world where ‘screen time’ is becoming simply ‘time,’ our policies must evolve or become obsolete. The public needs to know that the Academy’s advice is science-driven, not based merely on the precautionary principle.”
The new guidelines are expected to be released in October 2016. In a recent NPR interview, David Hill, MD and chairman of the AAP Council on Communications and Media, offered some insights what’s behind the AAP’s thinking.
“The question before us is whether electronic media use in children is more akin to diet or to tobacco use,” explains Dr. Hill. “With diet, harm reduction measures seem to be turning the tide of the obesity epidemic. With tobacco, on the other hand, there really is no safe level of exposure at any age. My personal opinion is that the diet analogy will end up being more apt."
“While we acknowledged that mobile and interactive screens have become ubiquitous in children's lives, we did not advocate for their wholesale adoption,” expands Dr. Hill. “I suspect that when they do come out, the statements will be highly conservative, reinforcing much of what we have said in the past about the known effects of electronic media use on child health and development.”
Elements of the Coming Guidelines
In the meantime, here is a subset of the “messages” published in the October 2015 issue of AAP News from the AAP’s May 2015 conference:
Here is a video from the Screenagers YouTube Channel that talks more about this subject
There are more opportunities than ever before — via screens — that can cause micro and macro moments of jealousy in our lives. (I will use the words “jealousy” and "envy" interchangeably even though I have meaty discussions about the nuanced differences). For example, these days, a teen may learn that the loner 9th-grade boy down the block is actually a TikTok star getting loads of attention and brand deals. Gone are the days when one had to be a Scott Baio to get all that attention. Today a teen might see, via Snap Maps, that the “it” girl from last year at school is spending loads of time with the boy she likes. Gone are the days when seeing such a thing meant you were in the same location. Or, a teen might see via a Snapchat story that the “cool crowd” were out at the park drinking alcohol. The teen might not be into drinking, but just seeing all the photos of the night can forge jealous feelings. Jealousy is a big, broad, and bullish topic worthy of discussing today.
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One of the most important resiliency tools we all carry in our tool belts is the act of remembering past times we got through challenges. The problem is doing it during setbacks, and those times don’t readily come to mind. Today’s blog is about 3 ways to nurture this skill in our children.
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Should I be wearing this brand? Should I try those skateboard tricks I saw on YouTube? Should I try vaping? Throughout my kids’ school careers, I’ve always reminded them, “You are steeped in social pressures, and there is no way you can fully appreciate the weight of them until you get to the other side. Social pressures never completely disappear, but they lessen greatly after your schooling days.”
READ MORE >for more like this, DR. DELANEY RUSTON'S NEW BOOK, PARENTING IN THE SCREEN AGE, IS THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE FOR TODAY’S PARENTS. WITH INSIGHTS ON SCREEN TIME FROM RESEARCHERS, INPUT FROM KIDS & TEENS, THIS BOOK IS PACKED WITH SOLUTIONS FOR HOW TO START AND SUSTAIN PRODUCTIVE FAMILY TALKS ABOUT TECHNOLOGY AND IT’S IMPACT ON OUR MENTAL WELLBEING.
