【时文选读】The truth about screen time 屏幕使用时间的真相『一』

【时文选读】The truth about screen time 屏幕使用时间的真相『一』

Moderating children’s use of digital media is the great parenting challenge of our time. What rules should be enforced, and why?

控制儿童对数字媒体的使用是我们这个时代最大的育儿挑战。为人父母应该采取哪些措施，为什么?

The truth about screen time

合理安排生活

培养多种兴趣

Why has this become such an issue?

1

It is only 13 years since the first generation of iPhones hit the market; in the same year, 2007, Netflix launched a streaming service that would fundamentally change viewing behaviour. The iPad, too, is little more than ten years old. Though television and video games have of course been around for decades, the sudden explosion of smartphones and tablets has made digital media easily accessible at all times. With multiple screens available, and a sprawling number of uses --- from chatting with grandparents to WhatsApping friends to playing violent video games --- children’s screen time has roughly doubled since the 1990s. According to Ofcom, children in the UK aged five to 15 now spend an average of 2 hours 11 minutes online per day, plus 1 hour 52 minutes watching TV.

为什么这变成了问题？

3

第一代iPhone上市到现在只有13年。在同一年，也就是2007年，Netflix推出了一项流媒体服务，这从根本上改变了人们的观看行为，而iPad的使用也只有10多年的历史。尽管电视和视频游戏已经出现了几十年，但智能手机和平板电脑的突然激增使人们可以轻松访问数字媒体。由于多界面可用，而且用途广泛：从与祖父母聊天到在社交软件WhatsApping与朋友聊天再到玩暴力电子游戏，自20世纪90年代以来，孩子们的屏幕使用时间大约增加了一倍。根据英国通信管理局（Ofcom）的调查，目前英国5岁到15岁的儿童平均每天花2小时11分钟上网，外加1小时52分钟看电视。

适当变换环境

使心理更宁静

2

How many hours do the experts recommend?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend that under-twos ought to avoid screens altogether, while two- to-five-year-olds should spend no more than 1 hour of sedentary time in front of a screen, watching only high-quality programming.

The American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) advises that six- to tenyear-olds should have no more than 1.5 hours of total screen time per day, and 11- to 13-year-olds up to 2 hours. There is, however, no clear scientific basis for these guidelines. The WHO’s expert panel judged the evidence on the effects of screens on children to be “very low quality” – rather undermining their own definitive recommendations. Owing to the lack of clear evidence, the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has not laid down specific limits on screen time.

专家建议多长时间?

2

世界卫生组织(WHO)建议，两岁以下的儿童应该完全避开屏幕，而两到五岁的儿童在屏幕前坐着看不能超过一小时，要看也只能看高质量的节目。

美国儿科学会(AAP)建议，6--10岁的孩子每天看电视的时间不应超过1.5小时，11--13岁的孩子不应超过2小时。然而，这些指导方针并没有明确的科学依据。世界卫生组织的专家小组认为，有关屏幕时间对儿童影响的证据“质量非常低”——这与他们自己明确的建议背道而驰。由于缺乏确凿的科学依据，英国皇家儿科和儿童健康学院(RCPCH)并没有对看电视的时间做出具体限制。

适时转换角色

洗涤假期疲劳

What do we know about the effects of screen time?

3

The RCPCH says there is “essentially no evidence” to support the widely held view that screen time is somehow “toxic” to health. The novelty of the technology means high-quality long-term studies are lacking, while the variety of activities that could come under the term “screen time” --- from homework to hardcore porn --- makes analysis difficult. Studies have shown that children using screens more tend towards obesity, depression and poorer educational outcomes. However, while these show a correlation, they cannot establish causality: heavier media use tends to occur in poorer households, with less healthy diets and lower educational standards, so it is hard to untangle these “effects” from broader social disadvantages.

3

我们对屏幕时间的影响了解多少?

RCPCH表示，“基本上没有证据”支持屏幕使用时间对健康“有害”的广泛观点。这项技术的新奇性意味着缺乏高质量的长期研究，而“屏幕时间”的多样性——从家庭作