The Dangers of Young Screen Use

All this week we’re looking at some of the latest data from the Pew Research Center on how parents of children ages twelve and under are managing the realities of life in a smartphone saturated world. The survey found that screen use is starting young. Ninety percent say their kids interact with the TV screen. Almost seventy percent have kids who interact with a tablet. Sixty-one percent interact with a smartphone. Half of the twelve and under cohort of kids engages in gaming. Just under forty percent use a laptop. And at this point, eight percent of five to twelve year olds are currently engaging with an AI chatbot. Paul in his letter to the Colossians says to “set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” CPYU Research Fellow Mike Terry writes, “With screens, it’s increasingly likely that their minds are being brought lower into fragmentation, and not lifted higher into focus on the things of God.” Parents, your calling is to point them to Christ.