美国国家公共电台 NPR American Academy Of Pediatrics Lifts 'No Screens Under 2' Rule

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American Academy Of Pediatrics Lifts 'No Screens Under 2' Rule

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If you have young children, you may have struggled with this rule - no electronic media before age 2. Well, now you can feel a little bit off the hook because that rule is out the window as of today. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which first issued the no-screens prohibition² has now changed what it says. And Anya Kamenetz of the NPR Ed team is on this story.

Hi, Anya.

ANYA KAMENETZ, BYLINE³: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: This is shocking...

KAMENETZ: (Laughter).

INSKEEP: ...Because as a parent of kids who have been under 2, I mean, you focus on this a lot. And you worry about this a lot. It's hard work.

KAMENETZ: Yes, absolutely. But here's the thing, I've spoken to some of the original authors of the no-screens-before-2 rule, which came out in 1999. And they said they actually didn't necessarily have a lot of evidence for it, even back then.

INSKEEP: Wait a minute. So it's like the tooth-flossing rule, where they eventually admitted they didn't really have a good basis for that either?

KAMENETZ: I don't know if it's flossgate (ph) exactly, but the thing is that media research can't move at the same pace as media itself does. And in the last decade and a half, we have this world of ubiquitous smartphones and iPads. Family habits are changing. And so it's really, really difficult to create evidence-based recommendations. But the American Academy of Pediatrics felt that it was really important to update the recommendations to at least reflect what families are actually doing.

INSKEEP: Was the original rule just about TV?

KAMENETZ: It was. In 1999, that was the main concern, was television for young children. There - it wasn't really possible for toddlers to interact so well with computers that had keyboards.

INSKEEP: OK. I think we're getting toward the change here. If you're watching TV, you're just watching a program, for the most part. You might be doing something more with an iPad or with a computer or with a smartphone. So what's the difference? And how big is the difference?

KAMENETZ: Well, so, for babies younger than 18 months, the AAP still says that no screens at all are ideal - with one notable exception, and that is live video chat, so the Skyping-with-Grandma effect. Studies show that, you know, upwards⁴ of 90 percent of parents are taking advantage of video chat, and they believe that it doesn't count. We don't have necessarily gold-standard evidence that that's true. But there are some small observational studies that show that tiny infants as young as 6 months can actually get something out of a social back and forth⁵ over a video screen, provided that there's a caregiver in the room sort of helping⁶ facilitate that.

INSKEEP: OK. So let's see if we can understand a little bit better what these rules are. Don't use a screen as a babysitter. Don't use a TV, for example, as a babysitter. But you can do things where you interact?

KAMENETZ: Right. So moving on - if you - you know, so under the 15-month level, you really - you want to avoid everything except possibly video chatting. Fifteen months to 2 years, there are some very small studies that show that toddlers can learn, for example, new words from an educational video but if and only if there is a caregiver in the room that is helping them interpret what they see on the screen.

INSKEEP: Oh, so I can use the screen as a tool. I just shouldn't leave the kid alone with the screen.

KAMENETZ: That's exactly right. So the new AAP guideline - the bottom line is going from no screens under age 2 to avoid solo media use under age 2.

INSKEEP: Have a person there somewhere.

KAMENETZ: Yeah, that's really the focus here.

INSKEEP: Anya, thanks for the update.

KAMENETZ: Thanks, Steve.

INSKEEP: That's Anya Kamenetz of NPR's Ed team.