Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How Much Screen Time Is Too Much Screen Time For Kids?
Los Angeles Times: Pediatricians Weigh In On A Fraught Issue Facing Parents Today: How Much Screen Time Is OK?
If you have kids or teenagers at home, chances are you have a complicated relationship with screens. On one hand, you know that capturing monsters in Pokemon Go or taking a portal to the Nether in Minecraft is probably not the healthiest way for your kids to spend the afternoon. On the other hand, they are so happy and quiet when they are bathed in the glow of a smartphone, tablet or TV. And some of those apps and shows have educational value, right? What if your child is tracing letters or learning to count? Can screen time ever be beneficial? (Netburn, 10/20)
NPR: Pediatricians Launch Online Tool To Help Parents Manage Screen Time
Whether your kid is 3 and obsessed with Daniel Tiger videos or 15 and spending half her conscious hours on Snapchat, you are probably somewhat conflicted about how to think about their media habits. How much time? What kind of media? What should our family's rules be? When the American Academy of Pediatrics released its latest recommendations on these burning questions Friday, it also did something pretty cool: it launched an online tool that parents can use to create their own family media plan. (Hobson, 10/21)
Stat: Pediatricians Soften Guidelines On Screen Time For Kids
The American Academy of Pediatrics is out with new recommendations to help kids maintain a healthy diet — of tablets and smartphones. Previous guidelines focused on stricter limits: No screen time for kids under 2, and just two hours a day for older kids. But with the media landscape shifting, the physician group decided flexibility was in order. The organization now recommends that parents keep infants and toddlers away from screens until they hit 18 months. The exception: video chatting, which is now seen as a healthy form of communication. (Thielking, 10/21)
