In a time where technology is prevalent in every aspect of life, a growing concern about the impacts of screens on children is seen from families in not only Huntington, but the rest of the nation. 

Associate professor Dr. Kristina Bryant-Melvin and assistant professor Dr. Mallory Morris, both in the Psychiatry Department of the Marshall Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, provided their medical advice to families on the dangers of too much access to social media and the internet. 

Up until the age of 1 or 2-years-old, babies should not have any screen time. Morris and Bryant-Melvin said, “An exception is video calls to connect with relatives,” and if there were any screens, it should be viewed with the child instead of leaving them alone.

Around the preschool ages of 2 to 5-years-old, there should be no more than an hour per day of screen time on the weekdays and “three hours or less on weekends of high-quality programming.” 

Shows that encourage decision-making, problem-solving, empathy and other emotional skills are considered of high quality as well as media that isn’t too loud or flashy. As children grow older, they need repeated reminders of their limits on screen time and the dangers that can be found on the internet. 

“Engaging children in age-appropriate conversations about current events can help them build a clearer understanding of the world as they grow,” Bryant-Melvin and Morris said. They recommend families should create a media viewing plan that goes over the specific time limits on screens and other activities that can be done outside of technology. 

The negative effects of too much screen time and unsupervised use were also discussed by Bryant-Melvin and Morris. 

“Families frequently describe patterns in which a child spends nearly all available free time online from the moment they return home from school until bedtime,” they said. “This level of isolation from family and offline peers can negatively impact emotional well-being and social development, further increasing vulnerability to mental health challenges.

“Many families report significant conflict around attempts to set limits on electronic use, with some youth becoming markedly defiant or aggressive when boundaries are enforced,” they said. 

This is where implanting a family media viewing plan would be beneficial as soon as technologies are introduced to children.

“We also encounter cases in which severe cyberbullying has contributed to self-harm behaviors, underscoring the real emotional risks associated with online environments,” Bryant-Melvin and Morris said. Online games, such as Fortnite and Roblox, allow communication with unknown people who may be preying on young children. 

Social media also allows these types of interactions, so Bryant-Melvin and Morris encourage teaching children about the dangers of interacting with strangers on the internet as well as monitoring who their children are communicating with. 

Excessive screen time has negative effects on mental health, but it can also have negative effects on physical health, such as “obesity, depressive symptoms and unhealthy dietary patterns.”

“Additional risks include behavioral problems, sleep disturbances and developmental delays,” they said.

From a parent perspective, the effects of screens can be seen in real time. Amber Payne, the community outreach director for Marshall Health Network, gave her experience with technology and her two children, aged 9 and 11.

Payne said neither of her children currently have smart phones, but her oldest will be getting one soon as he’s entering middle school and will be having after-school practices for sports. 

“There’s not going to be any social media until his frontal lobe actually develops. It’s going to be mainly for texting and phone call purposes,” she said. 

This approach aligns with the advice of Bryant-Melvin and Morris, citing research finding “age 16 as a reasonable point to consider gradually reducing restrictions and, when appropriate, allowing more open or even unlimited use.”

Payne agreed with this sentiment, and said, “I feel like the older, the better, because there’s people hiding behind keyboards. Kids can be mean either way in middle school and high school, but they feel more free to talk badly about one another behind a keyboard.”

Her children do have other devices such as chrome books, Amazon Kindles and a Nintendo Switch. While the chrome book does have access to the internet, it is provided by the children’s school and has built in limits on certain websites. 

Although it is not widely advertised anymore, the Amazon Kindle, first released in 2007, is a healthy alternative to a smart device for a young child as it not only has reading materials for education and leisure, it also has games that cannot access the internet and provides both education and entertainment.

Morris and Bryant-Melvin said it is currently a time shaped by the rise of artificial intelligence and a large increase in internet and social media usage. It is imperative the next generation is given the instructions to educate themselves on the harmful effects of excessive media usage as well as understanding the misinformation and bias that can be found all over the internet.

Davina Snyder can be contacted at [email protected].