Too much screen time 'can damage children as badly as poverty'
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This BBC Podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Kun toimistosi käyttöaste keikkuu, haluatko, että vuokranantajasi on epävarma vai varma? Vuokrat toimitilat varmalta. Toimitilat.varma.fi. Pendolino plus turusta Helsinkiin kiisi toimistotalojen ohi. Lounasaika lähestyi. Savu ohi seessarista haaveillessaan, Juha nojasi kevyesti pöytäänsä, tujotti ikkunasta ja pohti, että edessä olisi liikelounas, hyvinkin monessa mielessä. Kuljettiinhan tässä kiskoilla 160 tunnissa. Niinpä, liikematkustaminen junalla on pelkkää voittoa. Vejare. Yhteisellä matkalla.
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hi I'm Ankur Desai, and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 29th of September, these are our main stories. A large-scale study of screen use by children finds that prolonged exposure can damage their well-being as much as poverty, premature birth or bad parenting. Ukraine's National Academy of Science in the heart of Kyiv is hit by a drone strike as Russia increasingly focuses attacks on the city. And the US prosecutors reopen the case of an alleged gang rape at Cornell, one of the country's most prestigious universities. Also in this podcast, why communities around the world are pushing back against AI data centers being built in their local area.
And we have the new Queen of Chess.
I'm happy to do it, but I want to keep going and keep making history as well instead of just stop here.
How can excessive screen time affect children's health and development?
Meet the youngest ever woman grandmaster. Kids aged six to eighteen who spend too much time on social media, gaming or streaming are in danger of suffering the same kind of damage to their well-being that's caused by poverty, bad parenting, or being born prematurely. The results of a new study also link excessive screen time to poor academic achievement and language development, obesity, high blood pressure diabetes, and even heart problems. Researchers at the University of Calgary in Canada analyzed the use of smartphones, televisions, and social media by millions of children all over the world, and what's being held as one of the biggest ever studies of its kind. Critics say the findings are not.
insignificant, but insists that screen time is not the only reason teenagers become emotionally distressed or fail to reach their academic goals. Dr. Sheri Madigan is the senior author of the review.
This was what we call an umbrella review, which is essentially a review of all the reviews that have been done in the world. It gives us a real bird's eye view of the evidence so far that's really accumulated on children's screen times and the children's developmental outcomes. Instead of asking, you know, what one study found, we're really able to step back and ask what the evidence tells us as a whole. And what we found is that overall greater screen use. Use was associated with poor outcomes across several domains of children's development. In particular, we saw associations with language and academic outcomes, as well as mental health outcomes and peer difficulties. But we actually didn't see significant associations with every outcome we examined, which I think is a really important part of the story too.
And we need to also drill down on the ages, right? Does excessive screen time have a an impact on children of all ages, differing ages, and is there an acceptable amount of screen time per age group, maybe?
We actually found that screen time across all ages was associated to some degree with these developmental outcomes, but we found even stronger associations among older children. We can't say from this study exactly why that might be the case, but we can sort of speculate that as children are older, they're actually on devices for longer periods of time. And they also start to operate more independently on devices. And they start to explore different device types. So they get into platforms like social media, they start to do more gaming. And when you go on those types of platforms, the digital media becomes becomes more interactive and the content actually becomes more personalized.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:46
2
How can excessive screen time affect children's health and development?
1:46–6:05
3
What happened when Russian drones struck Kyiv's National Academy of Sciences?
6:05–8:29
4
Why has New York reopened the investigation into the alleged Cornell fraternity assault?
8:29–16:29
5
Why are kidnappings for ransom spreading across Nigeria?
16:29–18:27
6
What do Google Earth satellite images reveal about destruction in Gaza?
18:27–21:25
7
How is climate change putting Himalayan villages in Nepal at risk?
21:25–25:13
8
Why are communities opposing AI data centers near their homes?
25:13–32:53
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Global News Podcast
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