By Kayla DeKraker
If the co-founder of YouTube is concerned about the effects of short form content, particularly on children, we all probably should be.
“I think TikTok is entertainment, but it’s purely entertainment,” Steve Chen, who cofounded YouTube in 2005 alongside former PayPal colleagues, said. “It’s just for that moment. Just shorter-form content equates to shorter attention spans.”
Chen served as the video platform’s chief technology officer before its sale to Google in 2006, Business Insider reported.
Related: 5 Tips to Help Your Child Manage Their Screen Time
As a dad himself, Chen aims for his children to watch videos longer than 15 minutes.
“If they don’t get exposure to the short-form content right away, then they’re still happy with that other type of content that they’re watching,” he explained.
Other tech leaders have also voiced concerns about social media and children.
Last year at the VivaTech fair in Paris, Elon Musk said, “I would urge parents to limit the amount of social media that children can see because they’re being programmed by a dopamine-maximizing AI.” He added, “A lot of social media is bad for kids, as there is extreme competition between social media AIs to maximize dopamine!”
Whether we accept it or not, short-form content and social media generally are proven to be addictive, and children may be the most effected. The NIH reported, “Studies have shown that almost a third of all social media users are adolescents and young adults, while 93-97% of all teenagers aged 13 to 17 years use at least one form of social media.”
They explain that “The problem of social media addiction is growing day by day with the widespread use of smartphones and platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Threads. These platforms use frequent updates, notifications, and endless scrolling feeds that distract users, shift focus from essential tasks, and create a state of partial attention.”
Because young brains are still developing, this makes them “more susceptible” due to “developmental struggles with perceptual awareness.”
So how can parents protect children for screen time dangers? Dr. David Anderson of The Child Mind Institute suggests focusing on more important needs first. If these needs are being met, then limited screen time may be okay.
Those most important needs include asking yourself, “Is my child sleeping enough and eating a somewhat balanced diet? Are they getting some form of exercise every day? Are they spending some quality time with family? Do they keep in touch with friends? Are they invested in school and keeping up with homework? Do they spend time on the hobbies and extracurriculars that matter to them?”
Whether you chose no screen time or limited screen time for your children, Chen’s warning is a sobering reminder that social media and screen time should only be used very cautiously.
Read Next: 5 Signs You’re Addicted to Social Media and How to Fight It
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