How pandemic screen time is impacting children’s mental health

Kids spending more time on electronic devices

OTTAWA — In the isolation of a pandemic, for many kids their window on the world is the size of a smartphone.

That worries Dr. Michael Cheng, a child and family psychiatrist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Smartphones and tablets, he says, are harming children’s mental health.

“In the big picture, we’re all spending too much time in front of screens,” Cheng says. “I see it in my workplace. I see kids who don’t know how to pick up a phone and call someone for a job interview. I see kids who struggle with just having a conversation, with looking you in the eye. A lot of them are struggling with social skills that they would have figured out if they didn’t have a screen getting in the way.”

Thirteen years after the arrival of the iPhone and a decade since the iPad, screens have become ubiquitous. A 2019 study in the United States found that more than half of kids had their own smartphones by age 11 and “tweens” aged eight to 12 spent an average of four hours, 44 minutes online daily, not including school time. For teens aged 12 to 18, recreational screen time jumped to seven hours 22 minutes daily.

Though data are scarce, the pandemic has sent kids’ screen time soaring, says Cheng, who last week made an online presentation on the subject to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

Pre-pandemic guidelines from the Canadian Paediatric Society recommended that kindergarten kids spend no more than an hour a day in front of a screen and that no screen time at all was even better. Meanwhile, Ontario’s curriculum for online learning calls for kindergarten kids to be online 180 minutes a day. Cheng calls that level of use “unprecedented,” though he acknowledges the pandemic has thrown everything school-related topsy-turvy. (Ottawa school kids can return to the classroom as of Monday.)

Parents Dennis Murphy and Erin Burns know how hard it can be to limit screen time. They have a “no screens before noon” rule for Lilith, 9, and Garnet, 6, even as they’ve chosen to homeschool them during the pandemic.

“Screen time is a constant battle,” Murphy says. “At that age, it’s kind of their job to fight with us and develop their own independence. They’re definitely happy to try to sneak some screen time whenever they can and to push every boundary that we set.

“As frustrating as that is, I recognize that it one day might make them really excellent lawyers,” he says with a laugh. “There’s a lot of negotiations, so we think, ‘OK, there’s life skills we’re building here,’ even if it makes me want to tear out my hair.”

Cheng warns that excessive screen time cuts children off from the basic needs we all require for mental wellness: face-to-face interactions; adequate sleep; physical movement and time in nature; and a sense of belonging, purpose and hope.

But screens, particularly fast-paced video games such as Fortnite or Call of Duty, are a quick and addictive source of the dopamine rush our brains crave. That can lead to a state of hyper-arousal that can interfere with normal life.

“Parents tell us, ‘My kid is addicted to Fortnite. He’s normally a sweet kid, but, after four hours of Fortnite, he’s irritable. He can’t focus. He’s not calm. He’s like a drug addict because, when I try to get him off Fortnite, he has a tantrum.’”

If he could, Cheng would have kids with screen problems detox cold turkey for several weeks, but he realizes that’s not always possible, especially during a pandemic. What’s important is for parents to build strong relationships with each child.

“First and foremost, you have to connect with your kid. We call it ‘connection before direction.’ If you have a stressful relationship, you’re going to cause even more stress by just telling them to get off their device. You have to be willing to show empathy and validation, to know how to listen rather than just give advice all the time.”