Today, the government published guidance on screen time for under-5s. It is published online on the ‘Best Start in Life parent hub’ – the emergent digital offering intentionally forming a key part of the new ‘Best Start Family Hubs’ model.
The guidance acknowledges the fact that for some children, including those with certain special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), ‘screen-based assistive technology can be an important tool’. Aside from this, however, the overall message of the guidance is that screen time should be limited, and avoided: ‘Limit total screen time for young children, wherever possible’.
Screens saturate our modern lives. The new guidance situates the responsibility for limiting screentime at the level of the family and assumes that this will have positive consequences. But its publication on the screen-based element of a core government-funded early years service only highlights questions about the extent to which the family is a realistic level at which to intervene, should modification of screen use be the goal.
The full independent research paper from the Early Years Screen Time Advisory Group (assembled to inform the new guidance) reports on parent, child and carer views collected as part of their review. Participants asked for advice covering various topics, some of which are addressed in the guidance.
A notable set of subjects is not addressed. They include, ‘managing screen time for early‑years children when they have older siblings,’ and ‘how to ensure a consistent approach to screen use when children are with other family members’.
The omission from the guidance of advice on these topics is interesting because they relate to the wider environment within which siblings and other family members exist, and the influence of this environment on families. Older children attend schools where screen-based resources are increasingly prevalent, and where Ofsted encourages leaders to ‘promote effective use of…digital technologies’. This models and normalises use for younger children.
Other family members, including parents and carers, live in a world that necessitates online interactions. Recent evidence to the Education Select Committee emphasised how: ‘this is a societal issue. All of life is online’. Again, this entirely normalises screens and shapes the world experienced by families and their young children.
The full independent research paper of the expert group invokes ‘the precautionary principle’ – noting that the evidence review underpinning the guidance reveals:
‘…scientific uncertainty about the nature and extent of the risk of harm to children’s health and development from screen use…but good reason to expect, and some evidence for, reduction in the risk of harm from reasonable action compared to taking no action.’
It is on this basis that today’s guidance has been published.
But it is imperative to cast the net wide in monitoring the impacts of intervening to take action through this guidance and in defining and recognising harm. Feasibly, if sticking to the recommended limits and avoidances is difficult and unrealistic given wider environmental and societal influences and demands, the guidance may have unintended consequences. They could include adding to family stress, which in turn impacts parenting and children’s outcomes.
Indeed, the full research report details how parents, children and carers asked for advice on, ‘how to use screens better rather than setting unhelpful and unrealistic standards.’ Whether the ‘standards’ within the guidance are helpful and realistic remains to be seen.
To genuinely assist families and nurture children in the modern world, government intervention needs to be situated at numerous levels – addressing the wider environment within which families live, not only families’ own actions. It must also be open to continuous monitoring and evaluation. This is particularly important in the rapidly developing area of digital technologies and screen use, and when the government’s own services are so heavily reliant on the screen-based realm.
