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Screen time does not affect child development

oii.ox.ac.uk

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Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#11

Post by GPerson »

boh wrote: post #7

A parent doing their own "research" can quickly dispute these claims. A popular term in the parent community is "screen kid" to describe those kids who come for a play-date but literally don't know what to do when there isn't a screen in their hand. Screen kids tend be more neurotic, distractible, emotional and totally addicted to screen time. It's a little bit of a hot topic since the parents who rely more on screen…

From this reading, it’s possible the causality is reversed here. If I’m desperate because I’ve got a neurotic and emotional kid, I might be more likely to hook them up to an iPad.

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#12

Post by rahimnathwani »

The HN title doesn't match the press release title. And IMO the press release title doesn't accurately reflect the claims in the actual paper.

The study's input data were self-reported screen usage, and brain scans.

The study didn't measure actual screen time, or measure children's behaviour or performance in tests.

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#13

Post by janosdebugs »

kemotep wrote: post #2

Then why do so many kids scream their heads off and have temper tantrums when the phone is taken away? I can’t read the article at this time as it says that the site has reached its limit and I have been rate limited and blocked. Some kind of wordpress add on called wordfence?

> Then why do so many kids scream their heads off and have temper tantrums when the phone is taken away?

Taking things away as a method of enforcement doesn't seem to be all that effective and it undermines the kid's self determination. The only thing it does make kids angry and disappointed. A lot of kids have to live by arbitrary rules that don't make any sense, or if they do, haven't been explained to the kid. "Go to your room" and taking things away need to go away from the parenting toolkit, they just lead to kids who get accustomed to going behind the parents' back.

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#14

Post by hfiebwiosn »

janosdebugs wrote: post #13
kemotep wrote: post #2

Then why do so many kids scream their heads off and have temper tantrums when the phone is taken away? I can’t read the article at this time as it says that the site has reached its limit and I have been rate limited and blocked. Some kind of wordpress add on called wordfence?

> Then why do so many kids scream their heads off and have temper tantrums when the phone is taken away? Taking things away as a method of enforcement doesn't seem to be all that effective and it undermines the kid's self determination. The only thing it does make kids angry and disappointed. A lot of kids have to live by arbitrary rules that don't make any sense, or if they do, haven't been explained to the kid. "Go…

> they just lead to kids who get accustomed to going behind the parents' back

This is really the behavior you’re trying to correct. Your kid needs to learn low trust behaviors are absolutely not acceptable. You won’t have many friends or responsibilities if you don’t learn this.

A lot of parenting is teaching your kids how to remain trustworthy when it’s hard. Anything above that (go to your room, did you do your homework, make sure you’re home at 9) is relatively inconsequential.

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#15

Post by galdosdi »

GPerson wrote: post #11
boh wrote: post #7

A parent doing their own "research" can quickly dispute these claims. A popular term in the parent community is "screen kid" to describe those kids who come for a play-date but literally don't know what to do when there isn't a screen in their hand. Screen kids tend be more neurotic, distractible, emotional and totally addicted to screen time. It's a little bit of a hot topic since the parents who rely more on screen…

From this reading, it’s possible the causality is reversed here. If I’m desperate because I’ve got a neurotic and emotional kid, I might be more likely to hook them up to an iPad.

Of course. Yet it's also a great way to ensure a small neurotic problem becomes a bigger and bigger one, and does not get a chance to heal and improve while it's still small and the child is still young and more plastic.

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#16

Post by janosdebugs »

hfiebwiosn wrote: post #14
janosdebugs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Then why do so many kids scream their heads off and have temper tantrums when the phone is taken away? Taking things away as a method of enforcement doesn't seem to be all that effective and it undermines the kid's self determination. The only thing it does make kids angry and disappointed. A lot of kids have to live by arbitrary rules that don't make any sense, or if they do, haven't been explained to the kid. "Go…

> they just lead to kids who get accustomed to going behind the parents' back This is really the behavior you’re trying to correct. Your kid needs to learn low trust behaviors are absolutely not acceptable. You won’t have many friends or responsibilities if you don’t learn this. A lot of parenting is teaching your kids how to remain trustworthy when it’s hard. Anything above that (go to your room, did you do your hom…

Unfortunately, from what I see it achieves exactly the opposite. The kids who have experienced an authocratic parenting style seem to be the ones most likely to do something untoward (~11-12 year olds).

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#17

Post by alex_lav »

addicted wrote: post #10
Cpoll wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> scream their heads off and have temper tantrums Sure, but they also do that when you take away dessert. So you're on to something, ice cream causes developmental growth.

Your logic seems backwards. The poster you’re replying to is saying: Kids screaming and throwing tantrums when their screens are taken away implies that screens are bad for the kids’ development. So, kids screaming and throwing tantrums when their ice cream is taken away implies that ice cream is bad, not good, for the kids’ development according to the poster’s logic. I suspect most people do agree with the latter,…

> So, kids screaming and throwing tantrums when their ice cream is taken away implies that ice cream is bad

This premise seems just flatout wrong though. Kids get mad when you take stuff from them, regardless of what they’re holding. I feel like I must be misunderstanding what’s being argued, because “if a kid gets mad that it’s taken away, it’s bad for them” seems at face value absolutely ridiculous and pretty verifiably untrue? Give a kid a bottle and then take it away and they’ll cry…

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#18

Post by vidarh »

boh wrote: post #7

A parent doing their own "research" can quickly dispute these claims. A popular term in the parent community is "screen kid" to describe those kids who come for a play-date but literally don't know what to do when there isn't a screen in their hand. Screen kids tend be more neurotic, distractible, emotional and totally addicted to screen time. It's a little bit of a hot topic since the parents who rely more on screen…

So popular that as a parent I've never heard the term in my life, and that a Google search finds few uses of the term...

Sounds like a little local bubble to me.

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#19

Post by bentt »

boh wrote: post #7

A parent doing their own "research" can quickly dispute these claims. A popular term in the parent community is "screen kid" to describe those kids who come for a play-date but literally don't know what to do when there isn't a screen in their hand. Screen kids tend be more neurotic, distractible, emotional and totally addicted to screen time. It's a little bit of a hot topic since the parents who rely more on screen…

I am not part of this parent community you speak of, and I'm definitely a parent.

It's complicated. Some kids gravitate to screens, for reasons good and bad. Some parents are more permissive with screen time, but permissiveness over quantity of screen time is different than enforcement of quality of screen time.

When you talk in extremes it's not helpful.

Re: Screen time does not affect child development

#20

Post by mrkeen »

galdosdi wrote: post #15
GPerson wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From this reading, it’s possible the causality is reversed here. If I’m desperate because I’ve got a neurotic and emotional kid, I might be more likely to hook them up to an iPad.

Of course. Yet it's also a great way to ensure a small neurotic problem becomes a bigger and bigger one, and does not get a chance to heal and improve while it's still small and the child is still young and more plastic.

That's just a re-assertion of cause and effect.

TFA: A doesn't cause B.

1: I see A and B together.

2: It may be that B causes A.

3: That doesn't matter, because A causes B.

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