35
votes
Children under the age of two should not use any digital media, according to new recommendations from Sweden's public health agency
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- Title
- Children under 2 should not use screens, Swedish health agency says
- Published
- Sep 3 2024
- Word count
- 415 words
Quite poorly written article.
Original study (translated from Swedish using Google Translate) have more details:
https://www-folkhalsomyndigheten-se.translate.goog/nyheter-och-press/nyhetsarkiv/2024/september/rekommendationer-for-en-balanserad-skarmanvandning-bland-barn/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=uk&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Agreed - at no point do they even define what screen time is and what that child's interaction with the screen is (passive or active?).
Terrible
I hate the word screen time. It's for some reason taking probably infinite activities and smashing them all together. Further the idea thst someone 13 to 18 should be limited from thr primary way to talk to people and access the collective knowledge of humanity is actually quite an insane suggestion.
I wish the advice was better like, avoid doom scrolling stuff that upsets you, maybe don't scroll social media 20 hours or straight, do something like build or work on a project or hang out in real time with someone on discord or direct chat. Increase physical activity to xyz hours a week etc.
I hate these studies that just don't seem to acknowledge that the world functions though the internet and not all activities on a computer are equal. Yes you need to warch what your kids are doing and pull them out of rabbit holes and addictive behaviors and make sure they are physically active. This doesn't mean gtf off the computer /phone and watch TV or go outside and be bored odd your ass hitting sticks against a tree die the next 6 hours are reasonable things to force your kids into.
I get and appreciate the point. To me, it's possible to lump screen time together, not to demonstrate that all screen activities are alike but that all screen activities mean that you're focused on a 2D plane, likely sitting and likely not doing anything else.
It's silly that it's often stacked up against exercise - an activity that so many people see as worthy (and screentime, an activity they consider unworthy), but when used as an analog for being sedentary, "screen time" is totally appropriate.
As much as I wish my daughter don't have the same unhealthy relationship with screens as we have when she's older, I wonder what the negative effects on her social life will be if we limit it to 2-3 hours when she's 13+ and all her friends are chatting all day and she's not.
In general I agree with the recommendations in the study, but same. I was the bullied kid in highschool, I was a loner and had zero friends. Online games and the friend group that all resided in different countries were the only thing that kept me going at that time. I'm much better now (uni was a fresh start that I needed), but I frankly speaking don't know if I would be here at all if I didn't have the ability to shut out the rest of the world when I was going through hell.
I have the same worries about things such as banning mobile phones until they are 14. If all the kids in the class use it and have group chats. She would just be left out and might even be bullied for that. I see alot of parents advocating for that. But will they really keep to that rule when they are being bullied by their class for it?
My son is 1 year old and I'm already having this screentime dilemma!
Is it okay for him to watch Ms. Rachel? What about when we're camping and he's having a meltdown? What about when mom and dad literally just need 20 minutes to do absolutely 100% necessary things around the house? Can he watch it on the iPad?
Was it bad for me to get a "shapes for babies" game and watch him laugh while dragging a triangle around the screen?
More importantly, is avoiding all screen time preparing for a world that doesn't exist anymore? In what future do screens become less a part of our lives? I think they only become more ubiquitous until we're just interfacing directly with the brain to be honest.
Of course there have to be "common sense" limits and boundaries. But abstinence only education isn't helping in regard to screentime, I suspect.
Modern technology is dependence forming.
Modern technology modifies, and in some ways, undermines our interactions with each other and the physical world.
Modern technology is empowering.
Modern technology is a vital survival skill.
All these things, and more, seem true, and the challenge is somehow navigating this conflict for ourselves and the kiddos... Welcome to the uncomfortable club :)
As a parent of a now 2 year old, I understand the need to restrict access to digital devices that the child interacts with. The use of phones or tablets to view content, regardless of quality or source, can quickly establish into a pattern or routine. Children who rely on device interaction as part of their routine can become extremely unsettled if this is disrupted. The flip-side is that if you don't disrupt the pattern, it becomes ingrained behaviour, which can result in even more extreme responses. It makes sense that they recommend minimising this until the child has a better capacity to self-regulate.
All that being said, it's very difficult to navigate everyday life with a 2 year old and not expect to encounter situations where screen time exposure will happen.
In a perfect world, children would self regulate from birth, but that's as much wishful thinking as asking them to change their own nappies.
I am acutely aware of that recommendation which is the same in lots of countries. I take it as something meant to curb substantial screen abuse. Unless we wanna cosplay as medieval peasants and start making our own butter, expecting my child to literally never be exposed to screens ever is a very silly goal to have. I certainly do not wish to spend the entire day without taking a look at what's on TV. My kid is 1 year old. His screen time (if we can call it that) is limited and only peripheral. I don't have the unrealistic goal of zero exposure to screens, but I don't expect to allow my kid to hold a screen device any time soon either. Our doctor is certainly not as austere as these guidelines.
Based on my experience I would assume screen time in this case to be time during which the child is fully focused on and engaged with the device to the exclusion of everything else. I'm not sure to what degree such a young child is capable of prioritizing their surroundings if a screen is in the room, but I doubt peripheral exposure is that bad as long as there are other kinds of stimulation around them.
Well, although that is expected to change, my 1-year-old usually can't focus on screens at all. In that regard it is not at all difficult to keep him alway from screens.
Here's another insight. My young nephew is Swedish. Although I can't remember his exact schedule right now, I now that he's had, since an early age, a full stimulating agenda in daycare full of activities adequate to his age. That was followed by school, which he has now, also full of stimulating activities. As far as I know, most if not all of that is of hight quality and publicly funded. Keeping Swedish children away from screens in the few hours when they are bored with their parents seems remarkably easier than in most places. You can't really compare a Swedish parent that is greatly aided in that task by the government with, lets say, a single parent in Latin America.
Even if this policy recommendation is realistic and uncontroversial (I'm not sure it is, but I'm no expert), I lost pretty much all my faith in the Swedish public health authorities during COVID due to their massive mishandling of that.