Parents ‘need to lead by example’

PARENTS should lead by example when it comes to curbing screen time for their children, according to new guidelines brought out by doctors in the UK.

Britain’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says parents must ensure youngsters are not spending too long on smartphones, tablets or watching television, which can disturb sleep patterns and have knock-on effects.

Dr Max Davie, a health officer at the RCPCH, said children learn ‘from example rather than instruction’.

He said: ‘It’s very difficult to impose [overall] strict limits on your children’s screen use if you are constantly on screens yourself. Parents need to get

control of their own screen time if they are going to get control of the family’s screen time. It’s much easier to be authoritative if you practise what you preach.’ The RCPCH suggested parents should approach screen time based on the child’s developmental age, the individual need, and the value the family place on positive activities such as socialising, exercise and sleep.

When screen time displaces these activities, the evidence suggests there is a risk to child wellbeing, it said.

The college has published a set of guidance designed to help parents manage their children’s screen time. Following

a major review, it acknowledged high levels of screen time are linked to a less healthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle and poorer mental health. It stopped short of setting recommended time limits, claiming there is ‘insufficient evidence’ that screen time in itself is harmful to child health. Instead, it said it is up to parents to decide what is appropriate.

However, parents have complained that without strong health guidelines it is impossible for them to be expected to enforce limits on technology which has been made deliberately addictive to children. They point out that parents alone are not expected to enforce rules against child drinking, smoking or gambling, which are prohibited by law.