Does technology harm children or not?

New study states children who spend more time on devices: have more close friends, are only slightly more likely to have disturbed sleep or lower grades, and are no more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety.

This seems to be the opposite of what others studies find, so can we believe it? Let me unpack this study for you.

1. The study was done with a whopping 11,000 children. That's big so the findings are important. It's much more valid than small studies with say just 20 children (which is what most other studies about screentime are).

2. The study looked beyond just counting screentime. This is important! For instance, a child's socioeconomic status had 2.5 times greater impact on behavioural outcomes than using their phone. That makes a lot of sense.

3. The study did find associations between screentime and some mental health problems, but this doesn't mean it caused them. This is important to know. Eg parents with children who have a tendency to act out aggressively or lack attention might be more likely to sit the child down with a video game. The parenting has a greater impact than the screen on a child's wellbeing.

Parenting education around screen time needs to ensure it helps parents understand these complexities. Taking a simplistic and dated approach and just telling parent to only let their child use a device for X minutes everyday does more harm than good.

here’s a link to the study: https://bit.ly/39i1BeD