Grandparents have a role to play, too, in children's screen time

Many are caregivers while parents are at work. So they need to be included in efforts to raise awareness about guidelines, restrictions.

- Jiow Hee Jhee and Adeline Tay

Many parents would have heard about the health risks of their children watching digital devices. They would have also read about the updated guidelines from the Ministry of Health and dutifully limited screen use by children from 18 months to six years old to less than an hour a day outside school.

But the responsibility to safeguard children from these issues doesn't just rest on parents. It involves an entire network of caregivers.

A recent study we conducted explored Singapore parents' perspectives on the digital media use of pre-schoolers - those aged four to six. Through interviews with 21 local parents of pre-school-age children, we examined how parents leveraged devices for their children's learning and managed screen time at home.

Like many other parents, those who took part in our study allowed their children to watch shows on devices during mealtimes and often used screens as a "babysitter" when they were occupied with household chores or work.

Many parents also said that they struggled to justify strict screen-time rules to their children, especially when faced with comparisons to peers with more lenient limits.

Yet, the responsibility of managing children's screen time extends far beyond parents. Our study found that grandparents also posed impediments to parents' screen-time restrictions.

Some parents recounted that whenever their children spent time with their grandparents, they had prime access to a plethora of gadgets and devices, akin to a "buffet galore." This was despite the parents explicitly advising grandparents about screen-time guidelines.