Each year, more hours are spent behind a screen than ever before across every age group.
At the same time, we know that the number of children and young people suffering from anxiety and depression is also increasing year on year.
Correlation does not equal causation, but are we doing enough to understand the impact of more screen time and less play time on the mental health of the young?
Since the arrival of my Goddaughter, I’ve become very aware of anything that will impact her happiness as she grows up…and I wanted to make sure that I could answer ‘yes’ to the question above.
In this series of blogs, I am going to explore the links between screen time, exercise and mental health in children and young people.
Looking into what has changed, why it has changed, and what we need do about it in order to halt, and potentially reverse, some scary trends.
Over the next week we’ll explore:
How Much Exercise are Children and Young People Doing?
Screen time – Friend or Foe?
Exercise: Giving Young People the Tools to Fight Back
The Importance of Starting Exercise Young
The Call to Action – What we have to do
As someone who loves and wants to protect a little human, this is something I am personally very passionate about. I hope you’re as impacted by the facts and stats as I was, enjoy reading my take on them and consider adopting some of the changes I suggest as part of my conclusion.
If there is anything you want to talk through or understand more about, then please connect or contact me at enquiries@jamesmicklem.com.
How Much Exercise are Children and Young People Doing?
Until relatively recently, young people got plenty of exercise at school and as part of everyday living.
Over the past decade, the relentless boom in passive entertainment and the emphasis schools place on academic league tables has caused curricular physical activity to decline drastically.
The graph below (Source: British Medical Journal) shows the steady decline in the total hours of taught Physical Education (PE) for secondary school students (11–17 years old) in the UK from 2010 to 2019.
Alongside this decline in structured PE, restrictions on the ‘playtime’ classics have also been introduced. A BBC report says that 29% of schools have banned British bulldog, 14% have banned Conkers and 9% have banned Leapfrog…all in the name of health and safety.
Few of my best active memories of school would be deemed safe today. ‘Take out football’ consisted of 30 kids chasing one that had the ball. You led with the feet and tackled below the knees. Health and Safety was ensured by removing shoes.
While letting large groups of teenagers kick seven shades out of each other should probably be prevented where possible, we should still ask ourselves this question:
How much healthier and safer is it to actively restrict young people from exercise when everything suggests that the minutes being freed up are being absorbed by screens?
A survey, published by the non-profit research organization Common Sense Media, found that overall screen use among teens (ages 13 to 18) and tweens (ages 8 to 12) increased by 17% from 2019 to 2021 — growing more rapidly than in the previous four years.
On average, daily screen use went up among tweens to 5 hours and 33 minutes from 4 hours and 44 minutes, and to 8 hours and 39 minutes from 7 hours and 22 minutes for teens (Source: NY Times).
Teenagers spend more time on screens per day than asleep (teenagers get between 7 and 7 ¼ hours sleep on average).
Yes, there’s no doubt that COVID exacerbated the problem, but this is the state of play and how or why we got here simply doesn’t matter.
These 8 to 18-year-olds are not in an office where they’re required to work at a computer from 9-5, and there are no longer COVID restrictions locking them inside with their mobiles, laptops, iPads and televisions.
So, we must conclude that habits linked to free time have fundamentally changed and we need to decide – are we happy to accept the new norm?
Tomorrow I’ll discuss the benefits of moderated screen time, the recommended cut-off and the impacts of excess in ‘Screen time – Friend or Foe?’
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