Further to the conversation with Premier Radio this morning, I was contacted by Hits Radio, also asking for a response to the screentime story, now out on BBC News also (annoyingly later accompanied by a story about how to limit screentime). Around 11am the following segment (or part of) was used, and also used on Heat Radio:
We’ll see that the headlines are quite different, drawing on the same report:
The headlines differ slightly pic.twitter.com/9tIicqCzoq
— Brian Williamson (@MarethBrian) January 4, 2019
I also provided further audio which was available to use for a later programme (I haven’t found where the online audio is yet!) – responding to
- firstly, what’s your reaction to today’s report?
- have we perhaps been a bit tough on the impact screen time can have? Should we relax a bit?
- is there any evidence to suggest screens can have some impact?
- what is the best advice for parents?
- how much do we really know? Some who work in addiction find it difficult to believe the findings! :
Here’s some further content from my book Raising Children in a Digital Age:
Four pages from my book ‘Raising Children in a Digital Age’ about the historic fears that have been had about new technology – and that we shouldn’t be so scared/negative about digital and #screentime pic.twitter.com/194jdYI59L
— Dr Bex Lewis (@drbexl) January 4, 2019
Some content from my book ‘Raising Children in a Digital Age’ on #screentime pic.twitter.com/Ueo68ZV7N1
— Dr Bex Lewis (@drbexl) January 4, 2019
It was encouraging to get tweets like:
Thank you for this. Really helpful as a parent to think about how technology, progress, risk, and learning all intersect and need to be managed thoughtfully without panic. https://t.co/LQNn2QtOLF
— Ven Dr Joanne Woolway Grenfell (@joannegrenfell) January 4, 2019
A bit frustrating, as this tweet puts it:
Experts who have conducted research say there is no evidence that time in front of a screen harms children. But we’ll skip that and focus on the parents who are ‘disappointed’ with the advice. This isn’t balance, it’s barmy. https://t.co/GjLXeOH31x
— Kenny Hemphill (@kennyhemphill) January 4, 2019
One of the things I found when I was writing my book, and talking to a friend (a parent, unlike me) and saying they should be writing it – and they said ‘no, because I’ll just write what I know/do, and you’ll undertake research and be able to give a more balanced view!’
This has some good suggestions:
On a serious note, this piece is actually very interesting on #screentime and #parenting. H/T @JamieJBartlett https://t.co/o7bLgXurGz
— Peter Abbott (@FCOPeterAbbott) January 4, 2019