Excessive screen time can hinder childhood development and cause significant mental health issues, the Surgeon General stated in a warning to parents.
"Excessive screen time is linked to poor educational and health outcomes in school aged children," the advisory states. "In teenagers there are additional mental health and behavioral concerns, particularly related to social media use."
The advisory emphasizes the importance of outdoor play and in-person social interactions. It recommends that parents "delay screen time from the earliest age as long as possible."
"It means get off your phones, go outside, be in the moment, give eye contact, socialize with your peers," Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, a Health and Human Services official who was the architect of the advisory, told ABC News.
The advisory warns that more screen us has been associated with "higher depression, behavioral problems, self-injury, substance use, and lower self-perception, particularly with high levels of social media use."
The advisory states that the earlier a child acquires a smartphone, the greater the risk. "Children who got their first smartphone between ages 12 and 13 were more likely to show signs of clinically significant mental health problems by age 13 than those who still did not have one," it stated.
The advisory also warns that screen time can disrupt healthy sleep, which is fundamental to a child's development and can affect learning, mood, behavior, physical health, and overall cognitive development.
The Surgeon General provides parents with a list of things to do to help manage screen time and limit potential long-term, adverse effects.
Aside from delaying when children first gain access to devices, the advisory recommends discussing with their children their usage of devices and the content they are viewing; model healthy screen use behaviors for their children; provide alternatives - like physical activity - to using screen time when children are bored; and creating periods of disconnection by limiting any screen time to scheduled, monitored timeframes.
The advisory also includes recommendations for schools, such as suggesting bell-to-bell cell phone policy restrictions to reduce phone use during the school day, noting that a cell phone ban can reduce distractions and cyberbullying while improving peer interactions.
"There is a substantial and growing body of research on child and adolescent screen use. Although the evidence continues to evolve, there is increasing recognition that certain kinds of screens and patterns of screen use can pose real harm to children," the advisory states. "Because technology is now embedded in daily life and is not going away, we cannot wait for every question to be answered before action."
