In New Zealand, the Ministry of Education has updated their website to address health and safety management of digital device use by staff and students. This was done in consultation with WorkSafe New Zealand and the Pediatric Society of New Zealand.
The Pediatric Society of New Zealand recommendations are based on the study I co-authored last year titled: Impact of digital screen use on health and wellbeing of children and adolescents: A narrative review.
Their recommendations include:
- Children up to 6 should have minimal screen time, in sessions of 10 to 15 minutes.
- Students up to 12 should spend no more than a third of the school day on digital devices, in sessions of 20 minutes.
- Students over 12 should have eye breaks every 20 minutes.
They also recommend:
- students use screens in class only with the approval of teachers or kaiako
- a limit on the use of headphones and earbuds
- purposeful and intentional screen use
- a balance between screen learning and outdoor tasks, exercise and play
- adjustable seating and chairs and suitable lighting for digital device use.
I live in Canada. I wish the government and Ministries of Education here would take a similar evidence-based approach to protecting the health and safety of our children and teens.
For more info, check out my other posts on this topic, including Building balanced screen time for today’s tech savvy youth. For more specifics on safer personal listening with headphones or earbuds, check out my post Screen time and health risks in children and teens.
Jan L. Mayes 