Most parents are familiar with the guilty feeling that goes along with handing their children a digital device. After years of scaring parents about the perils of the great outdoors and the dangers of kids doing things on their own, experts have lately turned their attention to one of the last sources of distraction available to home-bound children, warning about the risks of “screen time” and decrying a generation of “iPad kids.” The move against screens has spawned bestselling books and a dazzling array of products designed to deliver children entertainment far from iPhones and tablets. The message is clear: Being a good parent means keeping your kids away from screens.
Yet the research supporting the latest childhood risk is weaker than many realize. As psychologist Pete Etchells argues in Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time (and How to Spend It Better), there is no reliable way to establish a direct causal link between screen time and most measures of child behavior. The effect sizes that do show up are often so small as to be of negligible practical concern. Even oft-cited concerns about the impact of screens on sleep amount to only a few minutes lost per hour of use.