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Screen Time Limitation Policies

Introduction
Have you ever though to yourself “I have spent too much time on my phone today.” Well don’t
worry, so have I. Or have your parents ever set a screen time limit on your device? Screen time
management is an important topic. In most countries screen time limits are optional, but in
countries like China there are policies being introduced that do limit screen time for 2 hours per
day for minors. And it left me with a question. What are the mental, educational, and
environmental effects if China plans to limit screen time down to 2 hours per day on
entertainment-type apps for minors?
Body
Limiting screen time is a practice done by parents ever since video games existed. It is a method
used to reduce screen time and make children focus on other things such as homework, studying
and going outside. Screen time limitation is a choice not a law made by the government, giving
parents options on the amount of screen time they decide to limit. As a child I can say I have had
many times where I have had my screen time completely banned for up to a week due to
immoral behavior. This is another reason parents may reduce screen time. And this process can
go the opposite way, where children are rewarded for good behavior and are given more screen
time. Though this practice is not as common as reducing screen time. Kids may not always have
a specific amount of screen time they are allowed to use, but instead they are told to turn off their
devices at specific times.
Children very commonly discuss their screen time in school to see how different parents treat
them. Then this information could be passed down to their parents to compensate. Parents’
decisions for limiting screen time varies from parent to parent. A lot of times it is just the general
parent's instinct to not get into the dangers of the internet or not wanting them to become
addicted. Parents also have a certain expectation for their children’s grades, so this may
encourage them to limit their screen time, so that they have more time to do homework and study
efficiently.
Negatives
Here is the problem though, Children who are limited of their screen time frequently will
decrease the child’s mental health levels because they are forced to study always, instead of
having time to relax and watch some videos or play some video games. This does not mean they
should always have free access to their devices. Constant use of social media may cause a
negative impact on the wellbeing of the user both mentally and negatively. A very noticeable
impact is obesity. A study made by Trust for Americas Health 2023 recorded a drastic increase
in both adult and child obesity rates. Since their 2004 study, childhood obesity rates in the US
have increased by a whopping 42%, and for adults 37%. This is a concerning amount and a huge
involvement in this screen time. The mental health levels changing for a child’s screen time
usage is very dependent on what kind of a person they are. Some children overall might feel
happier when they are limited of their screen time usage, due to them being able to do other
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things. And some kids will feel sadder as they cannot use their devices as much as before. This
varies a lot.
Postivies
Now here are positive effects of parents limiting their children’s screen time usage. As
mentioned before the child may feel happier as they are now doing more things in the real world.
Attention span going back to normal, short video platforms such as TikTok are one of the worst
apps for content, as they reduce a person's attention span. This will very much affect on how a
child will behave in public when presented with waiting in any scenario. Such as a fast-food line.
This is an everyday thing we need to deal with and making this already boring task even worse is
a bad idea. So, if you limit the amount of screen time that your child has then it will decrease the
chances of this happening. Cyberbullying is less likely to happen if a child is given a limitation
to their screen time. As nowadays it is easier to stay anonymous online, it makes it common for
people to bully and send death threats to youngsters due to them being incredibly young and
gullible. Suicide being the overly sensitive topic it is, encourages evil people to send death
threats and lie to them. This is very easily preventable by a block to the user, but sometimes the
damage is done before it is possible.
Now Putting all this knowledge together to form up a text on the main point of this essay.
America does not have any laws on screen time limitation, it is a completely optional choice left
to the parents, whereas China is introducing policies where screen time is going to be limited
down to 2 hours per day on entertainment-type apps for minors. This may seem a little extreme
on the surface, but it goes very deep as I have shown with the previous text. Now there is no real
issue for either one of these policies, both have reasonable points on why this is the way it is. But
there is an issue that may occur when you look below the surface. Smart phones are relatively
new, only being around 15 years old, and that leaves parents not being completely familiar with
them as they did not grow up with them leaving them to sometimes make poor decisions
regarding screen time usage. This is parents should take the studies made by experts into
consideration when choosing a screen time usage plan. Now when a policy is being introduced, it
is well thought out and researched to make it positively impact the country. So, these policies
must have good reasoning behind them. China being an academically competitive country this
policy may have been made in order to make children focus on their studies instead of games.
China’s policy could boost the mental health levels for some students but not everyone. As
Chinese students already must endure long school hours, limiting their screen time access could
very well lower the national mental health levels which a country does not want. This policy
would force students to study more and become academically successful, but this does not mean
they will be happy with their results. Suicide may become an issue for the young as they now
would have less time to relax leaving some depressed. Now this would affect the economy a lot.
Video games are becoming increasingly popular every year, limiting access to these companies'
video games would leave them with less revenue per year. China has over 1 billion people, and a
lot of them play video games, the economy would have a notable change if this policy were to be
used. Now that fewer people would be using their devices, then their next choice would be going
outside which would encourage the government to build more parks, libraries, and sport halls.
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This would then mean the environment would have changes as well. Also, it would be difficult
for this policy to be placed under the law because of public outrage and companies refusing this
idea. It would be difficult for devices to have this system installed, making companies forced to
make a software update. Every new device sold would have this system installed already and
every previous device would need it to be installed by the user, leaving some people ignoring the
update, so they do not have screen time.
Both perspectives have reasoning behind them but what could be improved? Well first the US
could release studies to the public and encourage parents to look at them so they can get a better
idea of what plan would work out the best. Interviews with children and parents would greatly
help with the research into this topic and to get a good understanding from all the perspectives.
Now clearly because America has a bigger problem with the wellbeing of their citizens this
research should be well thought out and structured, invested into and focused on focused on. We
all need each other to survive so this should be very widespread. Those were the perspectives
that I decided to focus on.
Conclusion
Although in my opinion neither one of these policies is fully efficient. There are flaws for both.
But they both also share something good, special, and unique. China’s policy is not easy to place
as there are already millions if not billions of devices in China. This would make it insanely
difficult to make a working inbuilt screen time app for already-existing devices. And new
devices would have to have it already inbuilt. It would cause outrage and it would be a
complicated process. And for US’s policy there are flaws as well. As it leaves some parents
making bad decisions on some occasions. That is why there should be a mix in between each of
them in order to see the best results. Interviews would be a very good method to find this mix.
Thank you.
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Rhea. F (2023) State of Obesity 2023: Better Policies for a Better America. Trust for America’s
Health. https://www.tfah.org/report-details/state-of-obesity-2023/