Screen-time25F

The digital context and the amount of time spent on screens, for both adults and

children, has been one of the areas with the most change since Growing Up in Ireland

started in 2006. Therefore, although screen-time questions have previously featured

on Growing Up in Ireland surveys, it is discussed in detail here as a ‘new topic’ given

the amount of addition and revision that is being recommended.

As well as traditional screen-time activities of watching television and playing

computer games, a young child’s screen-time may now also include video calling with

family members – a practice that was accelerated during the pandemic lockdowns. A

child may also have a presence on social media, possibly with an account in their

name, via their parents’ sharing of images, video and other information about them

online. The number and type of devices that offer opportunities for screen-time in

and outside the home has expanded over time: smartphones and tablets have joined

more traditional television and computer screens. There is also a large amount of

content available ‘on demand’, including self-published videos (e.g. on youtube)27 that

are arguably not held to the same standards for accuracy and appropriate content as

traditional, commercially-produced material.

The current guidelines are no more than one hour of screen-time per day for children

aged between 2 and 5 years (Health Service Executive – HSE, Ireland).28 The HSE

guidelines further recommend that parents should watch or play content with young

children, not to allow devices in the child’s bedroom, and not to use screen-time to

soothe a distressed child. This last point has been discussed at some length in the

recent academic literature: a longitudinal study conducted by Radesky et al. (2022)

determined that frequent reliance on digital media as a method to calm down

26 While there were some topics relating to screen-time for Cohort 08 at 3 years, the revisions proposed are so extensive that it has been written up as a ‘new’ rather than ‘continuing’ topic

27 Although parents who took part in consultations in preparation of this report, appeared to favour a moremoderated version of youtube called ‘youtube kids’

28https://www2.hse.ie/babies-children/play/screen-time/

toddlers may result in decreased ability for the child to gain crucial self-regulation

skills and higher emotional reactivity in later childhood. In another study, families with

children between 3 and 4 years of age who employed the use of technology to calm

their child were more likely to indicate yes on questions such as “when my child has

had a bad day, screen media seems to be the only thing that helps him/ her feels

better” and “the amount of time my child wants to use screen media keeps

increasing” (Coyne et al., 2021).

Research on the impact of screen-time on the sleep and executive functioning of pre-

school children has been taking place in the Irish context (Michelle Downes, UCD,

personal communication). There are a number of potential pathways for screen-time

to negatively impact on these aspects of development including exposure to ‘blue

light’, stimulating rather than soothing content before bed, and the ‘on demand’

nature of streamed content. Compared to older children and adults, at the moment,

little is known about the actual mechanisms and/or effect of screen-time on younger

children. Some suggestions for questions on screen-time were sought from the UCD

research team and one of these, the ‘seven in seven screen exposure’ instrument is

suggested for Cohort 24 at age 3 (see below).

Capturing detailed information on the screen-time content viewed by 3-year-olds is

not within the scope of a survey such as Growing Up in Ireland. It should, however,

be possible to ask about specific activities – watching television, playing games,

video-calling – as well as estimates of time spent on screens, and the extent to which

parents moderate or supervise the child’s access to screen-based content. A recent

(2024) event discussing generative AI in relation to children (attended by one of the

authors) posited the question what, if any, impact a child’s engagement with human-

like AI devices might have on their development. With a view to future-proofing the

study for 2027 (and beyond), it may be useful to include some items on whether the

household owns an ‘Alexa’ type AI device and, if it does, whether the 3-year-old

engages with it.

Separately, a question on whether screen-time is used as a soothing aid could be

included to further explore the themes emerging in the literature, such as whether

this parenting practice is associated with later unhealthy screen-time use. Parents

who took part in the focus groups as part of the consultation process made several

references to using ipads and similar devices to distract the child while they did

something else. In consultations with the expert stakeholders, there were specific

requests to extend the questions on this topic to include the child’s early interactions

with social media but this did not come up in the parent focus groups. There were

further suggestions to explore the issue of screen time while eating (recommended as

a new topic in the health domain, see section 2.5), screen time at bedtime, marketing

exposure via screens, and the mirroring of parental screen time behaviour.

Previous screen-time questions in Growing Up in Ireland