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VIDEO: Guiding pediatricians through a modern, digital world

NEW ORLEANS — In 2016, the AAP released guidelines on childhood technology use. The organization offered recommendations on how to make TV, videos, and mobile and interactive technologies as beneficial as possible for children aged 0 to 5 years.

Jenny Radesky, MD, FAAP, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School and a lead author of the 2016 guidelines, said the recommendations are important, but more needs to be done to ensure that children are using media in a healthy way.

“If we’re giving guidelines that say, ‘limit screen time, watch together’ and all these other pointers, but the digital world isn’t designed to support those behaviors, we’re going to have this mismatch, and parents are going to feel frustrated and guilty,” she told Infectious Diseases in Children.

In her session, Radesky discussed how current technology supports an unhealthy type of play and why games and applications strongly appeal to children. She also offered suggestions for how digital media companies can change to better serve children in a healthy way.

“It’s so much easier to redesign code than it is for us to do all this work one by one as parents or clinicians,” Radesky said.

References:

Council on Communications and Media. Pediatrics. 2016;doi:10.1542/peds.2016-2591.

Radesky J. Gamified childhood: How to guide parents through the world of interactive media. Presented at: AAP National Conference & Exhibition; Oct. 25-29, 2019; New Orleans.

Disclosure: Radesky reports no relevant financial disclosures.