• MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS: More from this project
“If you look at the statistics, it’s pretty scary because you look at, when did we see the sharpest increase in teen depression and suicide? It all started around 2014 when those numbers started to dramatically increase,” Liptak said.
Some of Liptak’s patients spend upwards of eight to 13 hours on their phones every day, according to their phones’ screen time trackers, he said.
“There’s no way that a 10-year-old should even have a cellphone or a smartphone, and we’ve got kids now in third and fourth grade walking around talking about killing themselves. They don’t even know what they’re saying,” Liptak said.
Those children are repeating things they see online and on social media that they shouldn’t be seeing, he said. “We got to get a handle on it,” Liptak said.
Resources available
There are ways parents can help their children best navigate screen time and their phones. There are resources available through Dayton Children’s Hospital, the American Academy of Pediatrics and your pediatrician’s office.
Guardians who want to limit social media use for kids can start with the American Association of Pediatrics’ Center of Excellence on Social Media and Youth Mental Health, which includes conversation starters, ways parents can curb their own use and more.
Basic guidelines
The American Association of Pediatrics recommends:
- Banning screen time for newborns and babies other than video calls with family or friends.
- Limiting screen time around preschool age to educational content and co-watching content.
- Limiting elementary school-aged kids’ exposure to social media and continuing to co-watch content.
- Working on a family plan for social media use with tweens.
- Talking to teens about screen time and best practices.
Experts from Dayton Children’s Hospital recommend beginning conversations about media literacy with children around elementary school age and continuing to talk to kids about it through their teenage years.
It’s also highly recommended that caregivers and kids talk about how they will work together on using technology, including boundaries and limits for adults. The plan discusses screen-free times and places. The American Academy of Pediatrics has a Family Media Plan website to upload and update the plans.
The AAP has extensive resources available for caregivers and kids through the Center of Excellence in Social Media and Youth Mental Health. There’s a question and answer section, live webinars and more.
To determine if a child is ready to have a cellphone, the AAP recommends asking the following questions:
- What would your child use the phone for?
- What are your child’s challenges that might make having a phone more difficult?
- How would you know your child is being a responsible phone user?
- What are the other ways they can connect with friends?
- Do you have a regular way to check in with them about how life is going, including their digital life?
Doctors also encourage parents to talk regularly with their kids about the apps and games they like to play on their phones and how to use a cellphone responsibly.
There are also several features on cellphones that can limit screen time use and social media, which can be turned off as needed.
Modeling cellphone use
Experts and local parents say some of the best ways to help kids with screen time is to model good behavior.
That means not looking at the phone while driving, leaving phones out of the bedroom to sleep, putting the phone away during dinner and setting aside the phone for a few hours and prioritizing offline activities, like reading a book, hiking or playing a board game.
As a child psychologist, Liptak helps children focus on the things outside of technology, including relationships with family and friends, getting exercise, playing outside and doing creative things, he said.
Designed to be addictive
Several experts interviewed by the Dayton Daily News for this series noted that cellphones and social media apps are designed to be addictive.
“The reward centers of the brain are lighting up when you’re using your cell phone, and some of the social media platforms create that kind of neural loop where you need to check and you need to check,” said Grace Schoessow, a parent coach and director of Infant Early Childhood Mental Health at the Greene County Educational Service Center.
Schoessow said ironically, some of the best interventions for helping people break that cycle are using technology. The Greene County Educational Service Center offers a virtual support group for parents and kids struggling with technology, she said.
“The best thing that parents can do is to have experiences alongside their child as they’re growing and developing,” she said.
