Key takeaways for caregivers
- In the context of digital media, challenges for caregivers include finding developmentally beneficial media for children and using media strategically to give caregivers a break.
- Some helpful demonstrations of a balanced approach to digital parenting are apparent in the popular television series Bluey, which depicts a cartoon family of dogs. The parents navigate supporting the puppies’ digital media use strategically within their broader family culture.
- Caregivers should find the best strategies for managing media use that fit their families’ needs.
- They should choose age-appropriate games and videos with high-quality content that supports the development of important life skills such as collaboration, communication, understanding of content, critical thinking, creative innovation, and confidence (also known as the “6Cs”).
- Technology can be a useful tool that allows adults to take breaks and refresh from parenting stress and supports warm and responsive caregiving.
- When possible, caregivers should encourage activities that reduce children’s screen time, engage children in offline activities, and add tech-free times to the family routine.
Modern concerns about parenting and digital media
In today’s digital age, children and adults are likely spending more time on screens than recommended. Screen media is captivating. Indeed, if given a choice, a child may choose engaging in screen time over going outside to play.
In recent years, several studies have linked excessive or problematic media use with developmental concerns in children, including sleep problems, behavioral problems, symptoms of depression, poorer language development, overweight/obesity, lower school performance, and low self-esteem. Yet it is unclear if these outcomes are related to the amount of screen time or the kinds of media children are using.
How and when can screen time be beneficial for children?
Many academics have questioned the perception that all screen time is bad for children’s development. In her review of Jonathan Haidt’s popular and controversial book The Anxious Generation, Candice Odgers stated that current data do not support a strong connection between the time children spend on screens and mental illness. While excessive screen time can have negative effects, moderate use of digital tools provides children with opportunities to enhance learning.
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels
Educational benefits of screen time
People often overlook these educational benefits by focusing on the possible harms of digital technology, but substantial research illustrates the benefits of digital technology. Digital media can build children’s digital literacy and lead to learning in multiple domains, including spelling and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
In fact, a recent review of media use in children and adolescents found strong positive effects of screen-based interventions on targeted learning goals, such as a game meant to improve children’s numeracy skills. However, these digital tools should extend, not replace, real-world experiences, suggesting that there is a sweet spot between taking advantage of the opportunities of digital learning and avoiding too much time on screens. Therefore, caregivers should develop strategies for making decisions about their children’s media use.
Strategies for navigating the pros and cons of digital media
Research can guide us in identifying techniques caregivers can use to leverage the positive effects of screen media. Adults can use a variety of strategies to make children’s screen time developmentally beneficial.
The 5Cs of media use
Finding the right amount of media use for children is challenging, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends five considerations (the 5Cs of media use) when making decisions about media use: child, content, calm, crowding out, and communication. These considerations result in several strategies for navigating children’s digital world, which researchers have grouped into three types of digital parenting: enhance, resist, and balance.
Joint media engagement
In addition, joint media engagement is a strategy that involves caregivers watching or using the same media together with their child and discussing what is happening on the screen. This strategy plays a role in all three digital parenting types. A family’s full suite of strategies shapes their digital parenting approach.
The first type, embrace, occurs when parents look for content to share with their children to foster their development of digital skills. The second, resist, is the most restrictive, with caregivers relying on rules to limit their children’s access to all or most digital media. The third type, balance, lies between resist and embrace. Parents whose strategies align with balance evaluate media experiences for possible risks and benefits on a case-by-case basis.
Evaluating good vs bad media
A recent Child & Family Blog article provides guidance on finding balance and evaluating “good” versus “bad” media. Here, we dive deeper into such evaluations and the balance type of digital parenting. What might an example of balance look like? BlueyTM, one of the most watched shows in 2024 (with 55.62 billion viewing minutes), offers examples in an entertaining context of a cartoon family of dogs.
The show Bluey is a popular, entertaining program, and the question of what developmental benefits children gain from watching it is beyond the scope of this blog post. Instead, because the characters frequently model digital parenting strategies for viewers, here, we use examples from the show to illustrate approaches to managing children’s digital lives.
How Bluey represents parenting in the digital age
Bluey demonstrates strategies of parenting in the digital age and of harnessing the power of media to support, rather than hinder, children’s development. The show features two canine parents, Chilli and Bandit, and their two daughters, Bluey and Bingo (to whom we will refer as children while recognizing that they are cartoon puppies).
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Many episodes illustrate specific strategies for digital parenting and how technology can be used to families’ advantage, while others depict ways to go tech-free when desired. In this blog post, we highlight seven episodes to illustrate examples of the strategies caregivers can use to navigate children’s use of digital media. Some fall under the category of promoting beneficial media use and some fall under the category of ensuring that digital media does not replace or prevent other valuable experiences.
Promoting beneficial media use
Caregivers and children should participate in screen time together
Active mediation is a process in digital parenting that is characterized by parental guidance and collaborative discussions between parents and children about appropriate content. Among the many features of active mediation is monitoring children’s media use, which typically involves co-viewing...