Six in 10 preschoolers exceed recommended screen time limit

Nearly all preschool-aged children use electronic screen devices, while 60 percent go beyond the daily recommended limit, according to a recent study.

“This is the first study that evaluates the prevalence of screen time among preschool-attending children in any part of Sri Lanka,” the researchers said. “Therefore, this study provides useful information on screen device usage in the pre-COVID-19 era to make comparisons with the use of screen devices during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The cross-sectional analysis enrolled 340 children aged 36–59 months (48 percent boys) who were attending 10 randomly selected preschools in Sri Lanka. Parent-administered questionnaires revealed that 96 percent of the children had used electronic screen devices. Only 14 kids had completely no screen time. [BMC Pediatr 2022;22:390]

The most commonly available gadget for use was television, which was present in 94.1 percent of responding households. This was followed by smartphones (90.1 percent) and laptops (41.5 percent). Less frequently reported gadgets were tablet devices and desktop computers, both of which were available in 16.5 percent and 16.8 percent of households, respectively.

Child device use closely mirrored availability patterns. For instance, children were most commonly exposed to televisions (86.9 percent), followed by smartphone (62.9 percent) and laptops (15.9 percent). Usage of tablets (8.2 percent) and desktop computers (5.6 percent) was low in comparison.

Of note, most children (52.3 percent) had started using screen devices before 24 months of age, while 17.4 percent of this subgroup had been exposed to such electronics even before their first birthday.

In terms of daily duration of exposure, 60.6 percent of children typically used screen devices for more than the recommended 1-hour limit per day, while 21.1 percent used such devices for more than 2 hours per day. Nine children usually went over the 4-hour mark.

Caregiver perceptions about such devices could potentially account for such high rates of use. Indeed, 75.4 percent said that they thought electronic screens were useful and could help with their child’s learning. Only 15.3 percent of respondents expressed worry that their children were addicted to such devices.

Nevertheless, majority (76.3 percent) of adults had taken concrete measures to limit screen time in their kids, including encouraging alternate activities (48.8 percent), using the devices’ limit settings (47.2 percent), and educating their children about the potential harms of electronic screen exposure (3.8 percent).

“Our paper presents data gathered before the COVID-19 pandemic. It is very likely that the use of screen devices and screen time have markedly increased among preschoolers as electronic devices were extensively used for educational purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the researchers said.

“Excessive screen time has been associated with a negative impact on language development, cognitive development, social interactions, sleep, learning, behaviour, and noncommunicable diseases,” they added. “Therefore, it is likely that the majority of our preschool kids are at risk of developing these health hazards.” [Arch Dis Child 2012;97(11):935-942]