Before you buy a device for your kids, you can have a conversation about what it means to open up a world of digital devices to your child. What I found as a parent is that I needed to have these conversations before buying a device. I wanted to set the expectation that there would be a screen free day, I wanted to remind my child that there is research that shows that too much usage of social media and video games can really harm them.

Latest Research

What motivated me as a parent was doing the research into the effects of harmful screen time. The articles below are referenced in the digital contract we have available for you to download.

$300M NIH / 60 Minutes Study on Screen Time
This was a massive study headed by Dr Gaya Dowling of the National Institute of Health. She studied 11,000 kids over a decade and found two very important conclusions:
1- Kids that have over 7 hours of screen time a day have permanent effects to their brains that we still do not know the full extent of the damage.
2- Kids that have less than 2 hours of screen time show a 100 point jump in test scores.

CDC Study on Teen Suicide Rates
The CDC released a study that showed that there is a 56% increase in teen suicides over the last 10-13 years. The correlation between cyber bullying via social media and internet usage masking depressions is being looked at. Not coincidental is the fact that all of the major social media companies (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat) have been founded in this time period.

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