Worry less about children’s screen use, parents told

There is little evidence screen use for children is harmful in itself, guidance from leading paediatricians says.

Parents should worry less as long as they have gone through a checklist on the effect of screen time on their child, it says.

While the guidance avoids setting screen time limits, it recommends not using them in the hour before bedtime.

Experts say it is important that the use of devices does not replace sleep, exercising and time with family.

It was informed by a review of evidence published at the same time in the BMJ Open medical journal, and follows a debate around whether youngsters should have time on devices restricted.

Most of the evidence in the review was based on television screen time, but also included other screen use, such as phones and computers.

Meanwhile, a separate study has found that girls are twice as likely to show signs of depressive symptoms linked to social media use at age 14 compared with boys.

‘No evidence of being toxic’

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), which oversees the training of specialists in child medicine, has produced the guidance for under-18s.

It said there was no good evidence that time in front of a screen is “toxic” to health, as is sometimes claimed.

The review of evidence found associations between higher screen use and obesity and depression.

But the college looked at this and said it was not clear from the evidence if higher screen use was causing these problems or if people with these issues were more likely to spend more time on screens.

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