A few days ago, while I was busy with household chores, I gave my youngest child an iPad to distract him. But after a while, I suddenly became a little uncomfortable and told him that it was time to put it down.
In fact, I was not able to keep track of how long he was using it or what he was watching.
Then the storm raged. He screamed, kicked, sat down holding the iPad and tried to push me away, all in anger and with all the strength of a five-year-old.
Honestly, it was a very disturbing moment for me. My child’s sharp reaction disturbed me.
My older children have entered the world of social media, virtual reality and online gaming and sometimes that too becomes a cause of worry.
Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was the CEO when the iPad was launched, said he would not let his children use these devices. Bill Gates also said he had set limits on his children’s use of gadgets.
Screen time is now synonymous with bad news. It is blamed for problems such as depression, behavioural problems and sleep deprivation among young people.
Famous neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield has even suggested that internet use and computer games can damage the teenage brain.
In 2013, she compared the negative effects of long screen time to the early stages of climate change, a major change that people were not taking seriously.
Today many people are taking this issue more seriously than before. But warnings about the negative side of screens may not paint the whole picture.
An editorial in the British Medical Journal said Baroness Greenfield’s brain claims were “not based on an objective analysis of the scientific facts… and misdirect parents and the general public.”
Other UK scientists have claimed there is a lack of solid scientific evidence about the ill effects of screen time. So is our concern about our children’s screen access justified?
Is it worse than meets the eye?
Pete Etchells, a professor of psychology at Beth Spa University, is among scientists who believe there is insufficient evidence to support the harms of screen time.
He has analysed hundreds of research studies on screen time and mental health, as well as big data on young people’s screen habits.
In his book Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time, he argues that the scientific process behind the studies that make headlines in the media is often incomplete or inaccurate.
“The stories that have been fabricated about the dire consequences of screen time are not supported by solid scientific evidence,” he writes.
A similar thing was said in a research published by the American Psychology Association in 2021.
14 authors from different universities around the world analyzed 33 studies published between 2015 and 2019. They found that the use of smartphones, social media and video games is not ‘too responsible’ for mental health problems.
Some research has certainly said that the blue light emitted from the screen suppresses the melatonin hormone, which causes difficulty in sleeping. But a research reviewing 11 studies from around the world in 2024 concluded that there is no concrete evidence that watching the screen an hour before bedtime causes any major sleep problems.
The problem of science
Professor Etchells explains that most of the data related to screen time faces a big problem. This data is mostly based on ‘self-reporting’. That is, researchers directly ask the youth how much time they spent on the screen and how they felt.
He also argues that there are millions of ways to interpret such a large data set. “We should be cautious about seeing correlations,” he says.
He gives the example of how ice cream sales and skin cancer symptoms statistically correlate during the summer. Both phenomena are linked to hot weather but not to each other. Ice cream does not cause skin cancer.
He recalls a research project that was inspired by a comment from a general physician. The doctor had noticed two things: first, that he was talking to more young people about depression and anxiety than ever before, and second, that many young people were using mobile phones in the clinic waiting room.
“So we worked with the doctor and said, ‘OK, let’s test this. We can use the data to try and understand the relationship,’” the professor says.
The research found that while there was a link between phone use and mental health problems, another important factor emerged. Young people who were suffering from depression or anxiety were often spending more time alone.
Ultimately, the study indicated that loneliness, not just screen time, was the real cause of these mental health challenges.
What is ‘doomscrolling’?
Another important point that is often missed is the nature of screen time. Professor Etchells argues that the term ‘screen time’ itself is too vague.
Was the experience motivating? Was it useful? Was it informative? Or was it just ‘doomscrolling’? Were the young people alone or interacting with friends online?
Each situation produces a different experience.
A study conducted by researchers in the US and the UK analysed 11,500 brain scans, health assessments and self-reported screen time data from children aged 9 to 12.
The study did find that screen use patterns may be associated with changes in connectivity between different parts of the brain, but found no evidence that screen time has a negative impact on mental health or cognitive ability, even in children who use screens for several hours a day.
The study ran between 2016 and 2018 and was overseen by Oxford University professor Andrew Przybylski, who has done extensive research on the impact of video games and social media on mental health.
His findings show that both of these mediums can benefit mental health rather than harm it.
Professor Etchells says, “If it were true that screens damage the brain, it would be clearly visible in such a large data set. But this is not the case. So the notion that screen use is causing persistent or permanent damage to the brain does not seem to be correct at the moment.”
Professor Chris Chambers, head of the department of brain stimulation at Cardiff University, agrees. He is quoted in Professor Etchells’ book as saying: “If there was a decline, it would be obvious.”
“It would be easy to look at the last 15 years of research … if we were that sensitive to changes in the environment we would not exist today.”
“We should have gone extinct a long time ago.”
‘Complex formula for mental health’
Neither Professor Przybylski nor Professor Etchells deny the seriousness of some online risks, such as grooming or exposure to obscene and harmful content. But both believe the current debate around screen time risks turning it into a more covert activity.
Professor Przybylski is concerned that arguments to ban devices or limit their use could backfire. According to her, if screen time is monitored too strictly, it can become a ‘prohibition’ for children.
However, many people disagree. Smartphone Free Childhood, a UK campaign group, says that so far 150,000 people have signed their pledge, which demands that children under 14 years of age should not be given smartphones and access to social media should be delayed until the age of 16.
When Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, began researching rising depression among teenagers in the US, her aim was not to prove that social media and smartphones are ‘very bad’, as she says.
Now she believes that keeping children away from screens is a completely clear decision and she is appealing to parents to maintain as much distance between children and smartphones as possible.
She says, “Children’s brains are more developed and mature at the age of 16. Also, the social environment of school and friendship is more stable at the age of 16 than at the age of 12.”
Although Prof Twenge agrees that a large proportion of data on young people’s screen use is self-reported, she says this does not reduce the reliability of the evidence.
A Danish study published in 2024 involved 181 children from 89 families. For two weeks, half of these children were given only three hours of screen time per week and their tablets and smartphones were collected.
The study concluded that reducing screen media had a “positive effect on psychological symptoms in children and adolescents” and improved “social supportive behaviour”, although it also said more research was needed.
At the same time, a British study, which asked participants to keep a screen time diary, found that higher social media use in girls was more often associated with feelings of depression.
“You look at that formula. More screen time, more alone time. Less sleep, less face-to-face time with friends. It’s a very bad formula for mental health,” says Prof Twenge.
“I don’t see what’s so controversial about that.”
Parents’ concerns
When I speak to Prof Etchells, it’s via video chat. One of his children and pet dog come and go. I ask him if screens are really changing the structure of children’s brains. He laughs and explains that everything changes the brain, that’s how people learn.
But he also makes it clear that he understands and sympathises with parents’ concerns.
The difficulty for parents is that there are no clear guidelines on this topic, and the debate is often fraught with bias and criticism.
Jenny Radesky, a pediatrician at the University of Michigan, summed up the debate when she spoke at the Dana Foundation, a charity that argues there is an “increasing concern” among parents.
“The way people are talking about this issue is less about understanding the research and more about making parents feel guilty,” she said.
“And that’s the real problem.”
Looking back, my youngest’s tantrum over his iPad was alarming at the time. But I’ve seen similar reactions at other times, like when he’s playing hide-and-seek with his brothers and doesn’t want to get ready for bed.
The topic of screen time comes up frequently in my conversations with other parents. Some of us are more strict about it, some are less so.
But the official advice is unclear at the moment. Neither the American Academy of Pediatrics in the US nor the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in the UK recommend any set screen time limits for children.
At the same time, the World Health Organization recommends that children under one year of age should not be given any screen time at all and children under four years of age should not be given more than one hour a day. However, when you read its policy carefully, it is clear that its purpose is to give priority to physical activities.
A big challenge of this whole issue is that no solid scientific consensus has been reached on screen time till now. This is the reason why the scientific community is divided on this. While the pressure in society to limit children’s screen access is constantly increasing.
And when there are no set guidelines, are we promoting an inequality, where some children become tech-savvy by the time they reach adulthood, while others are left behind and perhaps even more vulnerable because of this?
In any case, a lot is at stake. If screens are really harming children, then science should prove this. It may take years.
And if science ultimately says there’s no harm, we’ll not only be wasting energy and resources, but also trying to keep kids away from a device that could be extremely useful.
Meanwhile, technology is changing rapidly. Screens are becoming glasses, social media is shrinking into smaller groups, and people are using AI chatbots for things like homework or therapy.
That is, technology is already in our lives, whether we allow our kids to use it or not.
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