What do we know about young people's screen habits and the problems they can cause? How should parents be handling this issue?

In these times of social distancing, parents may be even more likely to worry about their children's intensive screen use. Ina Koning, Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, studies issues such as children's online behaviour and parenting. We asked Koning to answer some common questions about children's screen habits.

Screens are basically a godsend for homebound children and their parents, right? 
Obviously, all those screens do offer some clear benefits. They allow children that can't look each other up due to the Corona crisis to stay in touch. They also enable all sorts of distance learning programmes, and allow our kids to keep taking sports and music lessons. Unlike other forms of behaviour such as alcohol consumption, parents actually benefit from their children's online habits. Parents that need to work from home or simply want some time for themselves can let their child play computer games or watch something on YouTube or Netflix. That's something parents need to be aware of.
 

They also stand to gain from their children's digital media consumption. So at what age do parents generally let their children use these forms of media? 
That tends to start at a very young age. Parents of under-10s are more likely to actively suggest that their child use digital media. In most cases, they do so in order to buy themselves some time. Parents of slightly older children in the 9-16 age group are more likely to let their child go online. We already know that intensive screen use can have problematic effects on some of these children. However, we still don't know to what extent parents' active or passive encouragement to use digital media affects children's problematic online behaviour.

So what can parents do to prevent problematic internet and smartphone use?
Evidence suggests that clear parental guidelines, e.g. the rule that children should not be online for more than 3 hours a day, is effective in preventing problematic social media use by girls. However, this result was not found in studies among boys. There is also still no clear evidence that such rules help prevent problematic gaming behaviour among children in the 12-15 age group. Research on the role of parenting in preventing problematic internet and smartphone use is basically still in its infancy. We still lack so much knowledge on this crucial subject. We are currently working with researchers from Youth Studies to identify effective parenting strategies on digital media use. If your family would like to take part in this study, let us know by emailing us at digitalfamilyproject@uu.nl.

Setting rules regarding smartphone use just before going to sleep has positive effects on the quality and duration of sleep.

So what sort of strategies are effective? Sending our kids to bed without their smartphones.... right? 
The setting of rules on smartphone use before bedtime, e.g. not letting children bring their phones to the bedroom, has a positive effect on the quality and duration of sleep. However, this only works on children that have not become problem users yet. Once children have become obsessed with their smartphones and – more importantly – social media, setting these rules becomes relatively pointless. By this point, a ban on smartphone use won't have any major impact on the quality and duration of sleep because children will be thinking about what's going on online and wondering what they're missing.

Want to find out more about managing digital media use as a family? Maybe your family would like to take part in a study on digital media use? If so, send us an email free of obligation. The study exclusively consists of questionnaires. Our email address is: digitalfamilyproject@uu.nl.