CEO of Nature Play WA, Dr. Kelsie Prabawa-Sear joined Bec and Asa on Drive and spoke about screen time.
Screens are a normal part of modern life, but too much passive screen time can replace valuable play experiences. Six months on from the social media ban for teens – how are we ensuring real-world interaction remains a priority?
The Impact So Far
Kelsie began by discussing whether or not the social media ban has decreased the amount of screen time among teenagers.
“I want it to have had a positive impact. I want the screen time to be going down and I want to think kids are not on social media the way they used to be. But there’s not much to suggest things have changed much.”
Speaking from personal experience, Kelsie said that although it hasn’t worked how parents would hope, there is a greater goal at large.
“Yeah, from what I’ve seen and what I’ve also observed through my kids and their friends, it seems that it hasn’t worked in ways that we might have hoped or expected, but I still think it’s really important that we’ve given ourselves a goal and we’ve agreed more or less as a community that this is something that needs attention and maybe we just need to work on the how. I think the how hasn’t quite worked yet.”
Parental Permission
“I think it’s helped set an expectation for kids who are coming up and it’s given parents permission to say, we’ve got a standard now and we’re going to stick to that standard.”
She said the difficult task will be for parents who have kids under 16 who already had access to those things and now have to tell them no.
Where is the Focus Now?
Kelsie said that one of the questions parents will ask themselves is, “How much is too much?” as there is varied research on screen time.
She argued that not all things are equal when it comes to screens.
“So for example, I say, are we using it purposefully? Is it for a positive outcome that we’re using it? So if, for example, going for a walk with a toddler in the pram, handing them a screen doesn’t really have a positive outcome or a purposeful outcome when they could and hopefully should be looking at the trees and smiling at people as we walk past and singing songs and talking to whoever’s pushing them in the pram.”
She said if you compare this to watching Play School while a parent needs to complete a task, it gives it a different purpose.
“With older kids, it’s sort of same thing, but different age range.”
“But we know without a doubt that for all of us, little and big kids and adults, too much time looking at screens for any reason means we’re ourselves other opportunities like physical activity, social connection, sort of real world opportunities and we don’t want to deny those.”
Check out the full chat with Kelsie Prabawa-Sear below.