The challenges of parenting in today's digital age

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show. A new KPBS project looks at parenting in the digital age. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. How many hours are your kids spending on screens each day ? Well , deciding how much time is too much time is something many families struggle with. So a new multimedia project from KPBS looks into the challenges of parenting in the digital age. It's called Screen Time , and I'm joined now by the person behind it. He may be familiar to our listeners. He is the host of KPBS Roundtable and Midday Edition producer Andrew Bracken. Hey , Andrew.

S2: Hey , Jane.

S1: So congratulations on finishing up this part of your project.

S2: And I wanted to take a look at it from the family perspective. I think as a parent , more and more of the conversations I'd have at , you know , kid birthday parties out socially were around technology , around screens , and how people were managing it and how their kids were consumed by it. And it was something I just wanted to dig more into and the research and provide a space to , you know , kind of share some information and some of those learnings , uh , that I found because , again , you know , I'm living it. And I was kind of struggling with this as well.

S1:

S2: You know , as this field is evolving , I think one thing that became apparent to me is it takes time to do the research. And there's just been a lot of research into how screens , how technology is impacting childhood. And that's really what I wanted to kind of get a picture of. And there was a book , you know , published about a year or two ago called The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Hite. It brought a lot of concerns to the forefront of of how technology is impacting childhood. But at the same time , a lot of researchers that were talking to it said it's going to take time to to do this research to really learn about the impacts social media video game screens are having on young people on childhood. So that's what I did. I talked with a number of experts working in the field. I also , um , wanted to reach out to young people themselves. So we have some some voices of young people which have , you know , amazing wisdom to teach us on the topic. And I just wanted to kind of open it up to provide some accessible information for parents. And that was kind of where I was coming from.

S1: Well , and that's so very interesting. You wanted to focus in on kids. And there's really so much research , as you mentioned , still to do in that area.

S2: And really the thing that I was most interested in was the kind of connection that we hear about of the mental health challenges of kids and its connection to technology , particularly social media. And I think , you know , there has been some developments there. One of the key research studies that I looked into was called the ABCd study. It's the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study , and they have a research site here in San Diego. So I spoke with a couple researchers , you know , using that research. And what's unique about that is it follows 12,000 young people over the course of their adolescence. And it tracks everything from , you know , brain imaging , all sorts of data and information , including their technology use. And one of the experts I spoke with is named Doctor Jason Nagata. He's a pediatrician with UC San Francisco and has just done a lot of research on the topic. And recently he did release a study that found an increase in depressive symptoms with in young people after using social media over a certain amount of time. And in a similar study , he also found particularly the danger of cyberbullying and that had a particularly strong impact. Here's a little of what he had to say on that , actually.

S3: Unfortunately , in these kids , we found that those who had experienced cyberbullying were more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt the following year. So I do think that , you know , online bullying is in some ways similar to in-person bullying and that it can have some significant mental health consequences. But online bullying also can be different because in some ways it's anonymous. Sometimes people are bullying you with fake or online accounts , so you don't actually know who the person is. And there is not great age verification. And so it could be an adult that could be somebody from across the country. It could be somebody from across the world.

S2: So they're you're hearing about , you know , cyberbullying specifically. But we're starting to get some evidence of a connection between mental health impacts and use of social media.

S1: And a soundbite there that we heard ties back to this ABCd study that you mentioned earlier. Can you tell me more about that ? Yeah.

S2: I mean , like I said , there kind of it tracks a lot of data of young people. And what's what's valuable is it's not just one piece and time. The data. Doctor Nagata and others are working with looks over the same children over a longer period of time. So what ? What they told me is that gives us a much , you know , clearer picture of of the impacts these things are , are having to make some of these connections between the use of social media , the use of technology and its impact on mental health.

S1:

S2: And you know , even in your intro you kind of talk about the number , you know , how much screen time. And I think that was the way I was first asking the question was like the amount of screen time. But you know , the Lives we live screens are just such an indelible part of it that they're impossible to escape. So a lot of the recommendations have shifted. It's not so much about , hey , how much screen time are you having , but basically breaking down what that screen time is. And , you know , what are we watching ? Are we doing it alone ? Who can we communicate , you know , with while we're doing it ? So really kind of breaking it down a bit more. There's not such firm guidelines. There are for younger ages. There's still recommendations , you know , avoid screen time as much as possible in younger ages before the age of two. But even that , you know , I think there's some guidance that , you know , FaceTiming with grandparents and things like that is acceptable. So the one kind of guiding principle right now is this idea of a family media plan. You may have seen some of these , but this is what is recommended from the American Academy of Pediatrics. And it basically is just a way to for families to set rules around media use around screens , when they can use it , where they can use it , what's allowed , what's not. And I think that's really where the recommendations are going. And to kind of illustrate this , another researcher I spoke with his name , Doctor Michael Rich. He's a pediatrician , runs the digital wellness Lab. And , you know , he kind of has this , I don't know , a little bit more accepting. You know , dealing with screen time as just a part of our lives and how to do it in a healthy way. And here's a little clip of how he approaches it.

S4: It is so important for parents to approach their kids digital lives not with blame and shame , not with judgment , but with curiosity and creativity.

S2: And that kind of exemplifies what I heard from from some other researchers I spoke with , where really it's about kind of having conversations with your kids around these issues as we all navigate them. And , you know , parents are a part of it , too , because we have our own digital lives we're navigating.

S1: Yeah , we sit in front of screens all day. Yep. I mean , for work and everything else. You know what surprised you most after talking to these different researchers and experts on technology and its impact on childhood.

S2: Well , you just kind of hit it right there. And it's to me , it's about how much parents are involved in it as well and the role parents have. I mean , we are using these tools. We are using this technology in front of our kids. There's one study that I've been watching that they're working on is is on mothers of newborns and how technology use might kind of affect a child's development through lack of eye contact , because so often we're on our own devices , and that's something that just kind of kept coming up that parents are using these screens , and that's impacting our family dynamics as well. I spoke with several young people , high school students , just about , you know , to reflect on their experiences with technology. And that's something that kind of kept coming up. And here's just one example. This is Jay from from Hoover High School about , you know , reflecting on her parents use of technology. Here's that clip.

S5: My parents , didn't really pay any mind , but they do have like the saying where like if something , um , like that happens , they're always like , oh , like it's because of you're on the phone so much. I think social media and technology is a concern with the younger generation , but over time , I do find my parents to also kind of dive into like that rabbit hole. Like I always see my mom. She's always on like TikTok and like TikTok lives. So I feel like that's a reason why , um , screen time isn't as addressed to like me , my siblings.

S2: And there is research basically supporting what she's saying there. Call it techno ference , but there is like technology getting in the way of parents , you know , relationship with their own kids.

S1:

S2: Honestly , Jade , I think one thing that you know , gave me made me feel a little bit better. Earlier I played this clip from Doctor Michael Rich. You know , he had this kind of comment of looking at these conversations around technology and the screen use a little bit like cars in the earlier days. You know , cars were were very dangerous , right ? There were lots of accidents. People were hurt. People were killed. But cars didn't go away. People didn't call for like , entirely automobiles to be to be banned. What they did is they built , you know , seatbelts and more safety around them and better rules , speed limits , things like that. So I think that kind of reframing made me think a little bit differently about technology , whether it's social media or video games or anything , just this landscape we're in. Like it or not , it's it's here to stay. So I guess my focus now goes more towards like , where do we go from here and how can we improve it ? Wow.

S1: Well , we talked about , you know , some of the current guidelines , the family media plan , for example.

S2: I think one of the most common recommendations is just if we can have our devices , whether it's kids or even parents , if we want , but basically storing them away from our beds , away from our bedrooms , that that's helpful if it doesn't interrupt sleep. We've already seen movement to basically prevent notifications off hours in the middle of the night , because we know that when a child sleep gets interrupted , it has , you know , real significant impacts on mental and physical health. So that was like one of the most common kind of an easy thing to do. If you have your cell phone charger next to your bed , maybe move it to like a living area or something like that. I think that's that's a big one. Another one I think is just. Having regular conversations. I mentioned this , you know , family media plan. And that's we have an example of that on our site and screen time. But I think really the purpose of it , you know , rather than just like a piece of paper or a contract , the thing that I took away from it is just to have ongoing talks with our kids , with our family , about technology and how we want to , how we want to use it , how it makes us feel good , how it makes us feel bad , and how we can optimize it.

S1: Well , I know you're a parent , so I've got to ask , have you put some of these recommendations to practice with your own kids ? Definitely.

S2: Like the sleep thing was a big one. So yeah , we moved our devices out of our bedrooms. I think that's really easy. Actionable thing to protect that night time , you know , so we don't get woken up. And that's again a particularly for me as well. Basically we just kind of charge our stuff in a family room at this point. You know , there's some other things we're working on. You know , I think the other thing that kind of jumps out to me is every family's different and also every kid's different. So having the leeway to kind of explore your own rules has been really empowering for me in my family. Yeah.

S1: Yeah.

S2: I mean , for for one thing , I mentioned earlier , just where my mind's going is , is where we go from here. I think you're seeing a lot of activity. You're seeing a lot of regulation from states talk to the federal government , but basically trying to get a handle on the way. Some of these platforms work , particularly with young people. California has a law that's going into effect next year that ostensibly may change how social media looks to young people quite significantly. I think we're really starting to have those conversations about what needs to change. I mean , I think when social media was created , it was just there was kind of no rules behind it , you know. And now we're starting to kind of build these , these guardrails. And I think there needs to be more conversation from families , from tech companies and at the government level. So I'll definitely be following those. And to see how they shake out , you know , because I think that could be really important to kind of improving our digital lives at the kind of like a , you know , high society level. I mean , the other thing is , you know , there is one piece. Artificial intelligence is just something that I think a lot of us are thinking about. The actual pope mentioned it as kind of a warning , um , the dangers of AI for young people today. Just a couple of weeks ago , I thought was really interesting. But artificial intelligence , whether it's in education , in terms of of the media , we consume social media all across the board. That continues to be an evolving space and something , I don't know. I kind of want to wrap my arms around better because it's just changing so much so fast.

S1: Well , I know we'll look forward to more of your reporting on this. I've been speaking with KPBS roundtable host and Midday Edition producer Andrew Bracken. And you can find his latest project on our website at KPBS. Andrew , thank you so much.

S2: Thank you. Jade , it's fun to be on this side. Guest.

S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.