Social media apps, streaming services and games should not be accessible to children after 11pm on weekdays. That’s what the Liberals’ party leader Johan Pehrson told Sweden’s radio Ekot on Sunday.
“Several of these products come with lock functions today, but we foresee that it should come on most platforms,” says Pehrson to SVT Nyheter.
He believes that it is the parents’ responsibility, but that it is difficult to take such responsibility fully. There, Pehrson believes that a screen lock is a tool that can help keep children from staying up at night.
Link between late scrolling and sleep problems
In a new report where young people’s social media and health habits are mapped, the researchers see a clear connection between mobile phone use and sleep problems.
– There are a great many children who have great concerns with meeting their basic needs for well-being, where sleep stands out as quite alarming, says the brain researcher Sissela Nutley behind the report, in SVT’s Current.
It also appears that those who suffer from lack of sleep often sleep with their mobile phones in bed and scroll for a long time on their mobile phones before falling asleep.
The media strategy: More parental interest is required
Someone who is not behind the screen lock proposal is media strategist Brit Stakston.
– Making simple moves that are about limiting the time for young people’s media habits based on specific time windows is not the right way to handle an issue where a much greater parental interest is required from the start, she says.
Stakston also believes that it is not a realistic proposal as anyone who wants to can get around the restriction anyway.
– There is always a risk that someone can get around this in the same way that you can get around age limits on other things that we have to protect children. This can apply to everything from energy drinks to snuff, says Pehrson.
Similar proposals on limited screen time for children and young people have been discussed in other countries, including China, the United States and France.