Pediatricians’ Advice: Kids Should Spend Less Time Online

According to new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), kids are spending too much time on cell phones and computers. The Huffington Post reported that the AAP feels children should not have computers in their bedrooms and that their media and Internet consumption should be limited to two hours a day. This two-hour limit would include all television viewing and time spent on social network sites like Twitter, with the only exceptions being schoolwork that requires computer usage. The recommendation has been issued to try to combat some of the negative effects of excessive media consumption, like sleep deprivation, cyber-bullying and less time spent on athletic and academic pursuits. Many pediatricians also believe that parents are mostly unaware of the negative effects that media usage can have on children.

How Much Is Too Much?

According to a 2010 report, children between the ages of eight and 18 spend roughly seven hours a day online, texting, watching television and engaged in other media. Most parents do not place limitations on children’s time spent online, so many kids will text late into the night, long after their bedtimes, and watch videos on laptops and cell phones. Dr. Victor Strasburger, primary author of the new report, finds these trends concerning, especially since children potentially have access to sexual content and some are texting each other inappropriate pictures. Strasburger said, “I guarantee you that if you have a 14-year-old boy and he has an Internet connection in his bedroom, he is looking at pornography.” To further compound the issue, 75 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 17 have their own cell phones and frequently text. Since phones often have Internet capabilities, children can get online at any time of the day. The guidelines state, “Young people now spend more time with media than they do in school — it is the leading activity for children and teenagers other than sleeping.”

Children at Risk

This recommendation was released a mere two weeks following the arrest of two Florida girls who had bullied a classmate. Much of the bullying had been done electronically and resulted in the victim committing suicide. Still, when confronted with the possibility of media limitations, kids begin to panic. Mark Rissinger, a 16-year-old from Illinois, has a cell phone and a laptop that he can use in his bedroom. He spends an average of four hours every day online, which includes activities like doing homework, visiting Facebook and watching movies and YouTube videos. He believes that limits on media usage “would be catastrophic” and kids will “just find a way to get around it.” His mother Amy, on the other hand, agrees that media time should be limited but it should be up to the parents to decide how much time kids should spend online. While Mark can have a laptop in his bedroom, that is not the case with her 12-year-old son who has snuck a laptop into bed a few times and was sleep deprived the following day. Amy Rissinger said that she thinks, “some children have a greater maturity level and you don't need to be quite as strict with them.”

Other parents welcome the new guidelines, with hopes that media limitations will entice children to get adequate sleep and become engaged in more academic pursuits. Sara Gorr, a San Francisco sales director and mother of two teenage girls, felt positive about the AAP recommendations. Her own daughters were not even allowed to watch their home television until a few years ago. Now that the girls have a tablet, cell phone and computer between them, they are restricted from using these devices after 9 p.m. Gorr said, “There needs to be more awareness. Kids are getting way too much computer time. It's bad for their socialization, it's overstimulating, it's numbing them."

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