No screen before two years: less than 14% of parents follow this recommendation

Parents who have so-called “intellectual” hobbies, read books and newspapers, go to the museum or the library, limit this exposure more than those who consume a lot of screens (television, video games, PC, smartphone), observe the authors of this study published in August 2022 in theInternational Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

The more they use screens, the less they follow the recommendations, summarize the researchers led by Lorraine Poncet and Jonathan Bernard of Inserm.

Whatever the screen time of the parents, the more disadvantaged households follow the official recommendations less, observed Mr. Bernard during a press conference.

Exposure to screens was measured in 2013 among 13,117 children at the age of 2, as part of the Elfe study, the first French longitudinal study on a national scale devoted to monitoring children from birth to adulthood. This is supported by Ined and Inserm. More than 18,000 children born in 2011 are followed for a period of 20 years.

Recommendations not to expose children under two to screens are even less followed when the parents are separated (only 8% follow them) or when both parents are immigrants (9%).

These official recommendations are a little better respected when the mothers are over 40 (18% against 12% of those under 30), have a bac+3 diploma (17% against 11% of those who do not have the baccalaureate) .

The World Health Organization (WHO), the Academy of American Pediatricians, the French Academy of Medicine and the High Council for Public Health recommend not exposing children to screens before the age of two. Since 2009, the CSA has set the threshold at 3 years.

Excessive and unsupervised exposure of a child to screens is associated with health problems, such as overweight, sleep disorders, language and cognitive development, according to the majority of studies, note the researchers. It is also associated with attention disorders and school difficulties.