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How much screen time is OK for children?
Why this is probably the wrong question to be asking
When raising children we are often told that too much “screen time” is bad for them and that we need to limit their screen time to something like 1 hr per day. However, I think that there is a fundamental problem with this approach. It is emphasizing the wrong thing, that is the screen (or electronics more generally). You don’t hear of parents putting an arbitrary limit on book time or pencil time. However, if you had a child that spent all of his/her waking hours reading comics, then I am sure that this would come up. As with all things it is about balance and finding what works for your child and family.
The problem with setting limits on screen time
If you tell your child that they only have 30 minutes of computer time per day, what do you think that they will do with that time? If experience is any guide, it will be spent watching mindless youtube videos or playing single-player games. But what about all of the creative things that they could be doing on the computer? They could use it to write a story, create artwork, learn to program, play a cooperative game with a friend or learn a new skill. The problem is that all of these things take time, perhaps much longer than 30 minutes so if the computer is…
