Screen time ‘rewiring our brains’

Pibisi podcast kertoo, että he kertoo kertoo. Lähitapiologi liikennetierote, pohjois- ja keskipohjamalla autoilleville. Parkkipaikkavainkojen määrä on kasvussa. Naudittakaa erityistä varovaisuutta varsinkin markettien parkkialueilla, joissa pelti koleseen ennetyksellisen usein peruutelleessa ja ovia avattaessa. Tunnemme jokapaiikan. Siksi tiedämme mitä kaipaa autovakuutukseltaisi, osoitteessa, Lähitapiologi, se fikkautta auto. Palveluntarjoa, Lähitapiologi, pohjoinen. Welcome to Tech Life on the BBC World Service, with me, Shona McCallum. I'm constantly worried, you know, whether having too much time on screens or limiting their time on the screens just to get them to do something else. Sometimes can be a bit of an issue, because it's what their friends and stuff are doing as well. That's apparent we spoke to about her child's relationship with digital devices, because today we're looking at screen time in young ones. More of that in a moment. And a few weeks ago we spoke to a woman called Avon, who had lost her voice to motor neurone disease, about how AI had helped her speak again. That prompted listener Rob to get in touch with his own story of using AI to help her as father's voice for the first time in 50 years. Playing those to my mother, who is in quite an advanced state of dimension now, every now and then, with very old memories, you get a flicker in her eye, which tells you everything. And it was very moving. Right, this week on TechLife, we're taking a deep dive into screen time. How much time do you spend on screens each day? I'll go full disclosure here, according to my phone stats. I'm averaging between 3 and 4 hours a day. I know it seems quite a lot, doesn't it? And it feels quite troubling. And I think mainly that's because it's not even something I'm consciously noticing myself doing. A lot of that time is of course social media, but also shopping and travel, maps, emails, WhatsApp, text. There's just a lot of digital noise in this modern life. It's really difficult to have a screen break. Now, think back to when you were a child. How much time did you spend on screens then? In some ways I feel pretty lucky that screens weren't around as much when I was growing up, but as a parent now, it's something that I think about a lot. The World Health Organization guidelines suggest one hour screen time a day for young kids, but research suggests that children are spending more time on screens than ever before, whether that's phones, tablets or TVs. The UK media regulator says one in five children age three to four now has a smart phone. As a parent, I really think there's two challenges. One is trying to set a good example, so not always being on your phone in front of your children. And the other is environments that you can't control, so other families, other parents. And that's when it gets difficult. When your child is asking for a tablet because their friends have one, I definitely find that a bit tricky. How do you feel about it? Well, we sent TechLife's James Kelly to St Anthony's primary school in County, Irma, Northern Ireland to gauge the temperature at pickup time. They'll get up in the morning and there's no screen time. They'll go to school and then they'll come home and maybe have like a wee half an hour to watch something. And then they'll go outside and play usually, get dinner. And then night time usually they're like on their screens to have iPods or watching Netflix or Disney on their TV. And as a parent today, do you find it a make a conscious effort to make sure they're not spending too much time on their screens? Yeah, yeah. I find that I'm constantly worried, you know, whether having too much time on screens or limiting their time on the screens, just to get them to do something else. Sometimes can be a bit of an issue because it's what their friends and stuff are doing as well. Could you tell me, how would you describe a typical day in terms of how much time your kids would spend on a screen? And probably about an hour to two hours max, but that would be at the most late plan. And what do you think your kids relationship are with their screens? In moderation, Mason would have too much time on the week, or he doesn't rely on at all. Yeah, on what age is he with Debbie? 7 and 5. And do you find it tricky to try and navigate that? Definitely on behalf of your problems as well that comes with screen time. And that's always the constant need of wanting more. And my youngest is nine, but the other two are teenagers. In terms of the typical day, in terms of your youngest especially, how much time would you say there would spend on the screens? We've had to cook down quite a bit because it gets out of control and then the tantrums, but we would try to restrict them to about two hours. That's not including homework, because he does quite a lot of his homework on Google Classroom and Mathematics and all the rest. And when he's on the screen sort of in leisure time, what sort of stuff would he be doing in watching? It took off to the VR, so he's very, very active on the VR. He actually gets more exercise on the VR than he does on Hangouts. How do you feel about the screen time he's getting? Is it something that worries you? Yes, I know. Children have to progress with technology. Maybe an R2 would be surface, but it's starting to the person's discretion really. What do you think you're checking handle and what you're comfortable with them being on? Do you have to make a conscious effort in terms of strategies? Yes, I was a device-wired up, so whatever his content he's watching, I can say. I can actually sit and watch him while he's playing and if there's any inappropriate language or behavior, then I can flag it for him because he is only nine. So he still needs an awful lot of parental supervision. Thanks to Courtney, Tara and Roeshin for talking to us, it's clear listening to them that the issue of screen time isn't straightforward. Obviously, there's the worry of how much time children are spending on devices, but there's also the issue of how much us as parents are spending on our phones too. A study from the Kids Research Institute Australia suggests that parent screen time does actually have an effect on our little ones. Researchers followed 220 families over two and a half years. They used wristbands to measure the amount of electronic noise and parent child's talk around children aged 12 to 36 months. This included noise from screens used by the parent and the child. The study found that toddlers exposed to screen time at home are hearing fewer words and making fewer vocalisations. In fact, as lead researcher Dr. Mary Brush said that three year olds could be missing out on over 1,000 adult words and 843 vocalisations per day as a result. Other studies have concluded screen time could have an effect on physical activity, attention spans and memory. We spoke to Dr. Becky Kennedy, a clinical psychologist and founder of the online parenting platform Good Inside. She says screen time is a topic which comes up a lot with the families she speaks to. I find parents are very, very eager to understand what's really happening around technology and kids and then have practical, realistic things they can do in their home to make little shifts that feel better. And it comes down to what's going on in our brains. We are all at any age pulled to things that give us good, comfortable feelings with very, very low effort. Our body likes to have ease and it likes to have dopamine without going through a struggle to get there. It's biology. It's not morality. It's not laziness. It's actually just circuitry and biology in our body. And so we're living at a time now where there is endless, constant entertainment and novelty available to children in a small device without those children having to put in really any effort at all or take any risks at all. So Dr. Becky focuses on what changes can be made by us as adults if we're wanting to cut down on our screen time. If a screen is in a room, you are going to want to use it even more. Now our brain develops habits. If I'm used to using my iPad as a kid on the couch and I see the couch, I'm going to start thinking of my screen. But if the iPads on the couch and I come home from school and I'm expected to start my homework after seeing the iPad on the couch, I'm sorry. That's like expecting me to walk into a candy store and not. get candy. Like I'm an adult with decent frustration tolerance. I am not going to be successful. And that's I'm not successful taking my phone. If I even tell myself not to take it, right? Is that going to make a difference? Well, here's why it does. The the visual, the prompt isn't as much. You can even say to a kid, you know why I moved it? It's actually because it's a really hard thing for me to expect from you to see a screen in a room and not want to use it. I wasn't setting you up for success. So the amount of screen time I've told you we're going to have isn't changing it. But your ability to see it when it's not screen time, that is actually my job to change. As we hear it from parents earlier, sometimes it is hard to change and can lead to some difficult behavior for children. I always tell parents that I need to use my own advice. We can be right or we can be effective. You are an adult. You can do what you want. If you want to be effective in having screen time in your home, done in a way that aligns with your values, then you as the leader of your home cannot model the opposite of the behavior you're looking for. Honestly, I don't think a parent needs to do a 180. Sometimes it could be on the margin and I'll share something concrete saying to your kid, do you ever feel like I'm on my phone sometimes when you're trying to get my attention? It's such a great starter. Every child in the world will say, yes, okay? You know what I'm going to try to do? For the moments after I get home from work, for the moments I'm putting you to bed, for the five minutes I see you before you get on the bus at school, I'm going to put my phone in another room and it's going to be hard because it's hard to change habits. So if you see me on my phone during that time, can you tell me preferably lovingly, but just tell me. Now I'm bringing my kid in. Now I'm actually saying we're working on this together and reducing shame. We're on the team and again it's manageable. Pick one window to start with. That's what I would say. Research shows screens can affect children's developments from birth. A study by the Education Policy Institute found that its high screen time meant less outdoor play, less pretend play, and less reading with babies. But not everyone agrees. Some researchers say there's not enough evidence to prove screens directly harm development. Sleep issues, mental health, it's hard to pin the blame on devices. Cell-reported studies they warn aren't always reliable either. And screens do have their benefits. Educational apps and interactive games can actually help with learning. Still, we know that tech giants like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates limited or banned their own kid's screen use. So with all that in mind, what can we take from all of this? A 2024 report from the UK Parliament concluded. The overwhelming weight of evidence submitted to us suggests that the harms of screen time and social media use significantly outweigh the benefits for young children, whereas limited use of screens and genuinely educational uses of digital technology can have benefits for older children. But tech is moving so quickly that we're not too far off everyday devices which don't even have screens. Many homes already have smart speakers and companies like OpenAI are rumored to be developing some sort of wearable device which we interact with using our voices. And recently we've seen toys with AI chatbots integrated into them. Dr Emily Goodaker is a research associate at the University of Cambridge. One of the things about kind of thinking about screen time is that it limits what we mean by digital technology and children engagement with it. And I do think that why denating when we're thinking about screen time kind of saying well actually like we have a lot of technology just coming out that we don't know a lot about and that doesn't have screens and kind of making sure that when we're having these discussions about screen time that we are including devices like AI toys in those discussions. Let's turn to Jenny McCormick now Chief Experience Officer at Tonys. Very simply children as young as one can play independently. They place a figurine on our magical box and audio starts immediately engaging them with story, songs and all different types of educational content. Get ready. Let's go for a train ride. Hear that train coming down the track. We're all learning much more about the impact of different technologies on developing brains. So parents are thinking a lot about how soon, how much and how intensely their kids interact with different technologies screen and beyond. And ears and audio allow children to interact and learn in a very different way that complements their growth. You spoke about this growing parental concern around screen time which is something that's happening all across the world. I just wonder what you think about those discussions and getting children away from technology. Yeah, I think it's not as much as getting them away from technology but being really intentional about how we use technology with children. For me, the bar absolutely needs to be higher. And therefore, I think about how to design products that think about childhood first and really think about how children at different stages learn and develop and then see if there's a way that technology can enable that. And there's some argue that kids don't need another gadget. They just need their mum or dads and a story and a physical book. What's your response to that? Yeah, I think there's a lot of moments where we see families coming together and wanting to read and share those stories and those can be precious memories for both parents and children. I know I have those. But we also know that parents are in demand and they're balancing so many different struggles in navigating their family's lives. So the ability for parents to have their children be able to play independently to help empower the children give them choice while simultaneously giving that parent a piece of mind is really important balance. What happens to Tony's books at the end of its life? Does it just get disregarded when a child stops using it and do environmental factors play into the design of it? As it is, it's quite a plasticky box, isn't it? Well, I would say there's a couple of answers to that very good question. First of all, unlike other toy products, Tony's typically enters the household in those early years and stays for six, seven plus. It often also will get passed down from children that will listen to the family to others. So we have a pretty long duration when you think about not only being in the household but families actively using it. And we have a Tony's trade-in program in some of our markets where people can have a pre-love box as well. You mentioned there are Tony's books perhaps being passed down between siblings or cousins because it is obviously an expense. I wonder if it is cost a barrier at all because it's not a cheap device and I wondered if you have also ever considered lowering the cost of perhaps not even the main box but some of the additional things like the figures. Yes, so what we see in here from our lot of our consumers is when they compare it to other purchases, they're making maybe in the toy aisle or technology or entertainment, this product has much bigger like-tem value. And so they see the impact for that. But yes, we are always looking at ways that we can make it more accessible to different families across our markets. Would you mark it, Tony's, as a solution for screen time and to parents? What would be the kind of message to parents when there's so much noise and concern at this point in time around technology and especially around screens? We talk a lot of it, Tony, it's about empowering children and really making sure that when you give your child a Tony box or that my first figurine, you know that they are in a state environment, right? There's no ads, we don't design for endless engagement loops. We really are meeting the needs of children in a way that hopefully makes families like to easier. And I think that is something that we've seen tremendous response back some. Thanks to Ginny McCormick, the Chief Experience Officer at Tony's. You're listening to TechLife on the BBC World Service with me, Shona McCallum. Lots of you getting in touch with us about the pros and cons of self-driving cars. Anthony Powell emailed in with this potential scenario for an autonomous vehicle. Your cars got you to your destination, you'll not need it for some time and the parking fees are pretty high so you send the car back home. You can call for it again when you're ready. Twice as much energy, twice as much pollution, twice the mileage. Thanks for your thoughts, Anthony. And if you want to get in touch on this subject or anything you hear on the programme, email us. [email protected] is the email address or send us a WhatsApp on plus 4, 4, 3, 3, 0, 1, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2, 0. (upbeat music) We've also had a really moving message in from one of our listeners. Rob Jones got in touch from Oxfordshire after hearing our recent item about technology helping people to get their voices back who've lost them through illness, including motor neuron disease or M&D. Rob told us how voice-cloning technology has helped his family in a deeply personal way, and how it inspired him to help others going through similar experiences. - Well, I was taken by your article you had about a lady called Ivone, who was progressively losing her voice, think through M&D, and had the chance to capture some audio of her voice to create a more realistic version for a computer-aided AI tool to help her speak to her friends and family. - Hearing my voice again totally blew my mind. I forgot how slightly Cockney I was, seriously, a wave of nostalgia passed through me. I actually felt torn with my emotions. One part was of me feeling proud of my slightly Cockney accent, and the other part of me feeling so emotional, not having my original voice anymore. Ultimately, I now have control of the identity that I lost to motor neuron disease. I now feel relevant and feel heard and seen in conversation. - And it was really amazing to hear the difference that that had made to Ivone's life. And what experience do you have then of these voice-cloning tools, because you also have your own story to tell? - Well, my father, Robin, I was eight, and when we were clearing my mother's house, 'cause she was going to a home, 'cause she had dementia, we found a box of audio tapes, real to real tapes, which we hadn't heard for 50 plus years. And I hadn't heard my father's voice for that length of time. So completely forgotten what it sounded like. So I had those audio, those tapes digitized, and they had some very short snapshots of my father's voice on them, one of which was only about 15 seconds long. - There was a small baby called Robert, who was just the size of a hobbit. He woke up one night, gave us all a great fright, that terrible hobbit called Robert. - The Robert Hobbit is a poem, read to me when I was two years old by my dad, he made it up on the spot. And that was enough to enable the AI tool to capture his voice, and then I was able to type in some things that he believed strongly in, such as the odd prayer, but some letters he'd written back and forth to our family, to bring his voice to life. And when playing those to my mother, who is in quite an advanced state of dimension now, every now and then, with very old memories, you get a flicker in her eye, which tells you everything. - Of our though, who art in heaven, "Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not to." - It was if he was there in the room reading that letter to her, it was very emotional for not just my mother, and she can't show it that much these days, but my siblings were very, very emotional. And so, you can see how AI, there is plenty of good to be had from AI. - And tell me then about your mother because she's in a care home just now with dementia, has obviously been able to listen to your father's voice. And you also had some recordings of her. - So, several years ago, she told me that she'd written part of her life story, and she was a big personality in Oxford, particularly in the sort of mental health and care world, and she wrote some of her life story, and asked her to read it to me on video. But she only got halfway through before, she had a fall and the dementia progressed, and we were unable to complete it. So, we've managed to enable her voice to finish the rest of her life story verbally. - Tell me about then some of the work or the support then that you have offered some of the local charities that are using similar technology. - Well, I work with a cancer respite centre. It struck me that this could be a tool that could be used for friends and families of those suffering from particular types of cancer, which cause you to lose your voice, such as throat and neck cancer. And the leader of the respite centre is canvassing which and whether families are keen to get involved. In addition, my mum's care home, I've offered it, and I have the ability and the skills to have a go. I want to have a go with it and do some good. - You obviously feel quite passionate about this rub. - Oh, hugely, because I've seen how emotional my siblings got when they heard, but particularly my father's voice after 50 years. - And you mentioned a Vaughn story at the start. A Vaughn has M&D. You also had a friend who sadly passed away after having M&D. - She was a neighbour who was, I was very fond of and we were fond of each other. She got very quickly to stage where her voice was not usable. Sadly, her voice capture that she had done was an older version of the AI tool. So it was a little robotic. So it made me very passionate to, I suppose, talk more about this to people so that those suffering M&D and the like don't miss out on this opportunity. Because I know I could tell what effect it had on the Vaughn. - Oh, lovely. And I guess, you know, just to be able to share this story of yours is obviously deeply personal, but we're very grateful, thank you. - Pleasure, pleasure. - That's it for another week here at Tech Life Towers. It's screen time issue in your house. We'd love to hear from you and tell your stories. Or if there are other topics you love us to tackle, then let us know. Get in touch with us [email protected] is our email address. You can also WhatsApp us on plus 444-330-1230-320. Remember to tell us your name and where in the world you live. This week's programme was produced by Imran Ramon Jones and Vielo Nudlowville and presented by me, Shona McCallum. (upbeat music)