Why Do Children Spend So Much Time on Their Screens?

Published: December 29, 2025

child screen video game phone — Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko via Pexels

By Gavin Boyle

Psychologist Eli Stark-Elster discussed a new explanation for why children spend so much time on their screens and how it may actually be a good thing for their development.

“I think we often emphasize what technology is doing to our children. And this move into digital space, the fact that kids spend all this time on their phones and playing video games and so on, is often framed as something that they’re being sort of tricked into doing by tech companies, or what have you. But I think … [there is] this desire kids clearly have to build their, you know, sort of secret worlds away from us, I think a different picture kind of arises, and I think the picture that arises is kids are using digital space as sort of a last frontier to get away from us,” Stark-Elster told NPR.

“They, from what we can tell, are driven to find spaces away from adults where they can spend time unsupervised with their peers, doing what they want to do, and, in particular, playing in different ways in digital space that it now just far too difficult for a variety of reasons…” Stark-Elster added. “They have found this, I think, last domain where they can do the same thing, but in digital space instead of physical space.”

This explains why games like Roblox and Minecraft are particularly popular among kids as they directly allow them to create their own handcrafted worlds. It also explains why 85% of all teens, regardless of gender, play video games on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, this view of screen time and video games does not explain away the negative side effects of these devices. Rather than accepting that children are using these spaces to create their own worlds, some experts suggest that parents take less oversight of their children’s lives and allow them to go on adventures unsupervised.

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“It’s being outside with other kids playing. You make up the rules. You are having fun. That’s nature’s way of having mammals wire up their brains, Kids need play and independence if they’re going to become healthy, happy, and independent adults,” said leading psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

“The phone based childhood blocks out almost everything else – not entirely, I mean kids will still laugh with someone else, but it’s going to cut down almost everything, including sleep,” Haidt later added. “So, you know, I have some critics who say, ‘Oh, there’s no evidence that this is harmful, it’s just correlation.’ I mean, imagine a technology that comes in, it reduces your sleep, reduces you’re time with people, reduces your time in nature, it reduces your ability to read books. I mean, of course it’s having harmful effects.”

While Stark-Elster’s explanation for why children are flocking to digital spaces is intriguing, it does not solve the problems posed by devices and rather sets a vision for what needs to change to help children regain a proper childhood.

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