I was alerted to this programme about children and screen time, on earlier this week, and have just had the opportunity to catch-up on it. The blurb says:
Getting children away from their screens can be a daily battle, but how much more difficult is it in the school holidays? We’ll be asking whether it matters that they’re attached to their phones, tablets or computer games and whether it’s useful to set boundaries about time spent online. Do you worry that your children are addicted to their screens or are you relaxed about it? Is it any different to time spent in front of the TV, and do you consider what example you might be setting? Jane will be joined by Dr Alicia Blum-Ross who is part of a team at the LSE looking at parenting in a digital age.
I thought it was a really balanced programme, with many of the same concerns that parents always have, but many encouragingly finding ways to manage (e.g. no screen use between 9am and 6pm, looking at the examples they set), and I was pleased to hear Alicia challenge the language of ‘control, addiction’, etc. that many parents were using. Her thoughts were based upon the extensive research that LSE undertakes at Parenting for a Digital Future, whose team includes Prof Sonia Livingstone, who endorsed my book Raising Children in a Digital Age.
