Structured approach needed with tech

Families need our help and support.

Technology has done many things to better our world; from life-saving medical advances to connecting people across the world to efficiencies in our everyday lives.

The devices in our hands and “the world at our fingertips” provide us with incredible access to information and entertainment.

However, many big tech companies have used this access to gain our attention, use our data, and monetize our time for the benefit of their owners and shareholders. They are using psychological principles, within their apps and games, to keep us on longer than we intended and coming back again and again — for fear of missing out and to get a little shot of dopamine from gaining that next reward or when someone likes our post.

It is hard for adults to manage their screen time. Imagine the challenge for children, teens, and their parents trying to figure out how to make sure that kids do not get left behind, and yet wanting them to have a balanced life.

In a survey of parents, two-thirds stated that they thought parenting is harder today than 20 years ago, with many stating that current technology is the main reason.

The research is clear. Screen time is replacing other activities needed for normal development and high use is associated with physical health issues, mental health problems, poorer quality of life, and social challenges. Children with pre-existing mental health issues are more at risk for the negative effects of screen use and unsupervised children and teens can experience serious bullying and exploitation.

It may be tempting to think that this is just a parenting issue and parents just need to set better limits. However, parents are fighting an uphill battle against tech giants that have not designed their products with the best interest for child development and mental health in mind.

In fact, many are using how our minds work against us. Families and parents did not create this problem. It has been thrust upon them and often they are working alone trying to figure out how best to parent in the era of smartphones, online gaming, and chats.

In our “Kids and Screens” and “Teens and Screens” workshops, we try to provide parents with some tools as they fight the ever-present pull of the screen.

We encourage them to do what they can to support their children in developing healthy relationships with digital media. However, we acknowledge that systemic, public health changes are needed to make the biggest difference in their families’ lives.

The program design features place a large burden on the individual user and parents to resist the strong psychological pulls to engage with digital media and stay online. This is not fair for families as they raise our next generation of humans. Just as in other areas of public health, such as removing lead from paint or increasing access to healthy food in schools, making tech companies design and market their products with health rather than money as the priority and setting clear legislation to require them to do so is needed.

We commend the current government for announcing their intention to create bans on social media and AI for adolescents.

We believe their previous ban of smartphones in schools for younger children and in classrooms for older ones was an excellent idea and part of the solution.

However, we ask them to implement this ban thoughtfully and with experts from many fields, including families and teens, to advise them.

Bringing together lived experience and professionals from health, education, psychology, and technology, we can design a strong policy that will support families. We need to consider the wide range of platforms and digital media that are causing the most challenges for our youth as well as teach them how to use platforms well.

This will require more than a media ban. We recommend that we start by banning certain platforms and apps for children 14 and under and then providing limited access for 15- and 16-year olds.

This allows them the opportunity to learn skills to manage their screen time and the platforms and apps they want to use. In the same manner as we teach teens to drive cars using a learners and graduated license plan, we need to gradually support and teach teens to become digitally independent. Together we can learn to maximize the benefits of technology and limit the negative effects, especially for our young citizens.

Dr. Jo Ann Unger and Dr. Michelle Warren are child and adolescent psychologists.