Monthly Archives: September 2020

Should We Be Worrying About Our Kids’ Screen-time During The Lockdown?

Professor Claire P. Monks

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, many schools in the UK and other countries across the world have been closed for extended periods of time. This has meant that many young people have been heavily reliant on going online and using technology mediated communication (TMC) such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, WhatsApp and many others to access education materials and to keep in touch with their friends and extended family.  However, should we be worried about the amount of time they’ve been spending online?

We are all aware of some of the serious risks that young people can face communicating with others online.  This includes exposure to negative peer pressure, involvement in cyberbullying or exposure to inappropriate content as well as the risk of online grooming.  There is some indication that more time online is associated with poorer mental health, although the findings are mixed (with some studies not finding a link) and other factors such as problematic peer relationships and family factors have been found to have substantially more effect on young people’s mental health than time spent online. 

Young people spend a considerable proportion of time online communicating with people they know in real life and often see TMC as an extension of their in-person communication.  Research from before the COVID-19 pandemic found that young people use TMC to connect with friends outside of school hours, and to keep in touch with people they are dating; reporting that they often feel that these forms of interaction can strengthen their relationships. Studies have shown that there is evidence that those who already have good social connections benefit from online communication by being able to complement their in-person friendships with online chatting.  Young people who are socially anxious may also benefit from these forms of communication as well, perhaps because the ‘distance’ allowed by these means of communication means that they are less anxiety inducing.

Childhood and adolescence are important periods of development and peer relationships have a key role in the social and emotional development of young people. It has been argued that the social distancing measures brought in in response to the COVID-19 pandemic may be particularly difficult for young people. Early research that is now being published has indicated that many young people have reported feeling lonely during the lockdown and that this may have had a negative effect on their mental health. Many young people turned to online media as their only way of communicating with friends and extended family during the lockdown, spending more of their leisure time online.  This has helped young people to maintain connections with those outside of their household by chatting via WhatsApp, attending out of school clubs on Zoom, hosting parties in Housepartyor playing online games together in Fortnite. It has been suggested by some researchers that these tools have been a way to mitigate some of the negative effects of lockdown.  

For us as parents or educators, it is vital to strike the balance with online interaction. There are risks, and these are real, but there are also real benefits and whatever our opinion about it, online communication is here to stay. What we need to do is ensure that young people continue to communicate with their parents/educators about what they are doing online, and that adults ensure that they are aware of the ways in which they can minimise the risks posed online through both discussion with young people as well as through technological means. 

So, coming back to the original question – should we be worrying about the amount of time our kids spent online during the lockdown?  The evidence suggests that it isn’t really the amount of time that is the issue, but rather we need to be careful about what they are doing, who they are interacting with and the content they are viewing, and that although there are risks, there are likely to be clear benefits as well.  As lockdown is relaxing, it is vital that we reflect on these experiences, providing young people with experiences to meet friends (where safe) in person or online.  

Further reading:

N. Van Zalk & C. P. Monks (2020). Online Peer Engagement in Adolescence: Positive and Negative Aspects of Online Social Interaction – Studies in Adolescent Development.London: Routledge.

Orben, A., Tomova, L., & Blakemore, S-J. (2020) The effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health. The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.https://doi.org/10.1016/ S2352-4642(20)30186-3

Kardefelt-Winther, D., Rees, G., & Livingstone, S. (2020) Contextualising the link between adolescents’ use of digital technology and their mental health: a multicountry study of time spent online and life satisfaction. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry doi:10.1111/jcpp.13280