Is Your Screen Time Affecting Your Kids? Experts Say Yes.

Published: February 10, 2025

Is Your Screen Time Affecting Your Kids? Experts Say Yes.

By Movieguide® Contributor

Is your screen time affecting your children? A new study says yes.

“We wanted to explore parent rules and adolescents’ exposure to mature content because there’s a lack of research to guide parents of young adolescents on media use,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Jason Nagata. “Young adolescents are at a unique developmental stage — they’re not little kids anymore, but they’re also not fully independent teens.”

The report, published in BMC Pediatrics, found that parents who spend a significant amount of time on phones and computers can pass those habits down to their kids, which can lead to “higher mature video game use and R-rated movie consumption in adolescents.”

When parents reported high screen usage, the study discovered there was an 11% increase in the likelihood their children would engage with this mature content.

“Parents should practice what they preach,” Nagata said. “If parents make a family rule to not text at the dinner table, they should follow it.”

Dr. Mitch Prinstein, chief of psychology at the American Psychological Association, echoed Nagata’s point, telling CNN, “Our kids will want to spend a lot of time on social media if they think we are doing the same. So, a first step may be to have the whole family create a phone-free zone in the schedule.”

He also recommended parents find ways to get their children away from screens and out into the real world.

“Adolescence is a period when we learn relationship skills that are used for the rest of our lives in our professional and workplace relationships,” Prinstein explained. “Time spent on social media may take kids away from some of these learning opportunities, not only because kids spend so much time online, but also because online interactions lack most of the verbal and nonverbal cues, nuance and sophistication within our relationships.”

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