Remember Baby Mozart? Magical videos of puppets and colors and shapes that mesmerized infants for a magical half-hour, making it possible for mommies everywhere to take a shower alone? These videos, initially developed by former schoolteacher/stay at home mom Julie Aigner-Clark in 1996, were extremely popular when they initially launched, with the first Baby Mozart video winning the 1997 Parenting Magazine award for Best Video of the Year. Aigner-Clark later sold her company, “Baby Einstein,” to Disney.
Though Baby Einstein was very popular at first, the company eventually experienced controversy around its claims that videos were educational enrichment for infants. In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation was that children under the age of two should have no exposure to screen time at all. Researchers at the University of Washington released studies in 2004 and 2007 “linking television viewing by young children to attention problems and delayed language development”(Lewin, 2010). Other studies came to similar conclusions, eventually inspiring a 2006 class action suit against Baby Einstein. The lawsuit resulted in Disney offering refunds for Baby Einstein videos and dropping the word “educational” from their advertising (Graham, 2017). Disney ended up selling off Baby Einstein in 2013.
In a relatively short period of time we’ve moved far beyond where Baby Einstein began, as tablets for kids are now ubiquitous and used not just in the home but in the classroom as well. 5-year-olds can get online (Frank, 2022). Screen time is here to stay. What does it mean for kids?
Why does my 8-year old need bifocals & other health concerns
If you are a parent, hopefully you know the 20-20-20 rule for screen use. Every 20 minutes, look 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds to give your eyes a break. Why? We are experiencing something of an epidemic of myopia, or nearsightedness in children in the United States, where the prevalence of myopia has “increased from 25 percent in the early 1970s to nearly 42 percent just three decades later” (Brody, 2021) Since genetics don’t change rapidly, the change is due to environmental factors, including screen use and not enough time spent outdoors in natural light.
Getting outside is important - and getting kids moving even more so. Screen time is sedentary time, and too much of that is not good for kids. A study for the World Health Organization pulling data from 39 countries in Europe and North America showed less vigorous and moderate physical activity in kids that were on screens more than 2 hours a day, putting kids at higher risk for being overweight, obese or having other metabolic risk.
If the risk to eyesight and physical fitness isn’t concerning enough, how about twitching? A recent article in the Atlantic examined the phenomenon of teenagers around the world developing tics and twitches from exposure to Tourette’s influencers on Tik Tok and Instagram, in what researcher Kirsten Müller-Vahl calls a new type of mass sociogenic illness (Lewis, 2022). Social media in particular can negatively influence children in any number of ways by promoting unhealthy behaviors, from idiotic challenges (like snorting cinnamon) to encouraging eating disorders and body dysmorphia.
This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.
I’m totally dating myself if I mention the cracked egg in the frying pan commercial, right? First the egg - this is your brain. Then, the egg is cracked into the frying pan - this is your brain on drugs. The sizzle made it very convincing. What does screen time do to a developing brain?
Studies show a correlation between screen use and low scores on language and thinking tests. An NIH study in 2018 showed participants engaging in excessive screen time (over seven hours a day) actually experienced a “thinning of the brain’s cortex, the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning” (Cross, 2019) Researchers, like Dr. Jennifer Cross, conjecture that screens may narrow a child’s focus of interest, limiting other means of learning and inhibit aspects of their development.
But screens don’t just potentially change brain structures - they can also change chemistry. Screens themselves can be addictive, social media even more so, both physically and psychologically. Social media use can activate the same part of the brain activated by addictive substance use, according to a study by Harvard University (Hilliard, 2019).
The Internet Jungle - Danger! Quicksand!
Every time your child goes online, they are strolling into a dangerous jungle. There are snakes and other poisonous creatures. There is quicksand and there are falling rocks. There are predators. You should be sure to equip your child with the tools they need to survive and guide them through the jungle for as long as possible. If you don’t let your child wander around outside by themselves, then they likely should not be wandering around the internet. Don’t be fooled into thinking the environment online is really ever “safe.” Helpful apps like
Bark and
MMGuardian allow parents to go a step beyond the typical device parental controls and actively monitor their kids' interactions online.
Living in the Jungle - Thanks, COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated all these issues facing kids online. Schools switching to virtual learning during the pandemic meant hours of screen time, and the effects of that have been pretty immediate. A study on school-aged children in China showed a substantial decline in visual acuity over six months of virtual schooling due to COVID-19 (Brody, 2021). Excessive screen time over the course of the pandemic was shown to have negative mental health impacts including depression, anxiety, attention-deficit symptoms and impaired social intelligence (Amin, et. al., 2020) Shut-downs and stay-at-home orders kept kids socially isolated unless they were online, building more concrete digital social interactions that, to kids like my son, seem preferable to in person interactions. And so the screen time increases.
Progress always…progressing?
Even with multiple studies highlighting the many risks involved with children and excessive screen time, as a society, we seem to be always moving towards more engagement with screens and kids rather than less. The American Academy of Pediatrics relaxed recommendations in 2015, allowing screen time for kids 18 months and up, saying that “scientific research and policy statements lag behind the pace of digital innovation.” As a parent, it’s important to be aware of the risks and judging for yourself the potential costs of that innovation.
5 ways screen time guidelines have changed for kids. (n.d.). TODAY.com. Retrieved March 4, 2022, from https://www.today.com/parents/5-changes-screen-time-guidelines-american-academy-pediatrics-t48591
Amin, K. P., Griffiths, M. D., and Dsouza, D. D. (2020). Online Gaming During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India: Strategies for Work-Life Balance. Int. J. Ment. Health Addict. 1–7. doi:10.1007/s11469-020-00358-1
Brody, J. E. (2021, May 3). Why Nearsightedness Is on the Rise in Children. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/well/live/nearsightedness-myopia-children.html
Cross, J. (2019, August 8). What Does Too Much Screen Time Do to Kids’ Brains? NewYork-Presbyterian. https://healthmatters.nyp.org/what-does-too-much-screen-time-do-to-childrens-brains/
Frank, N. (n.d.). Young Children and the Internet: What Puts Them at Risk? WeHaveKids - Family. https://wehavekids.com/parenting/Young-Children-and-the-Internet-What-Puts-them-at-Risk
Graham, R. (2017, December 19). Once Upon a Time, Parents Thought Videos of Puppets Playing Mozart Would Make Babies Smarter. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/technology/2017/12/the-rise-and-fall-of-baby-einstein.html#:~:text=An%20advocacy%20group%20complained%20to
Hilliard, J. (2019, August 22). Social Media Addiction - Addiction Center. AddictionCenter. https://www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/social-media-addiction/
Lewis, H. (2022, February 27). The Twitching Generation. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/social-media-illness-teen-girls/622916/
Lewin, T. (2010, January 12). “Baby Einstein” Founder Goes to Court. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/education/13einstein.html#:~:text=The%20Walt%20Disney%20Company%20bought
Melkevik, O., Torsheim, T., Iannotti, R. J., & Wold, B. (2010). Is spending time in screen-based sedentary behaviors associated with less physical activity: a cross national investigation. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 7(1), 46. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-7-46
