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When my five-year-old daughter, Violet, gets her screen time, she has a degree of control that I couldn?t even imagine when I was a kid. Back in the day, my brothers and I had to stay put in front of a hulking Sony Trinitron that rarely delivered shows we wanted to see. (?What"! The Edison Twins again"!?) Violet?s experience is nothing like that. Whether she wants a funny movie trailer on Dad?s iPhone in the bathroom, an episode of PAW Patrol on a tablet at the kitchen table or a game on her LeapPad on the sofa, she?s got a screen at the ready. Compared to my brothers and me, Violet is the master of all media. Or is she the one getting mastered"
That?s a question worth pondering now that the American Academy of Pediatrics have a new set of recommendations on screen use. (Released online today, they?re published in the November issue of Pediatrics.) As indicated by a preliminary report released last fall, the AAP have updated their policies to acknowledge just how digital our lives have become. After years encouraging parents to maintain strict limits about consumption, the AAP now concedes the difficulties families face being surrounded by all that tech. I for one feel bewildered about where and how to draw a line as my daughter heads deeper down the digital rabbit hole. According to a 2015 study by Common Sense Media?an American organization that promotes healthy media habits for families?tweens now spend 4.5 hours daily staring at some kind of...