Plain and simple, all parents worry. In the 1930s, they worried about the effects of listening to the radio would have on their children’s priorities. In the 1950s, it was the accessibility of “adult” content on television. It wasn’t until the 1980s, though, that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) came up with guidelines for how children and teens should interact with the growing presence of technology and media. Since then, rules around “screen time” and acceptable media practices have changed right along with developing technology.
Dr. Sina Safahieh, a Board Certified Pediatric Psychiatrist and the Medical Director for Orange County, California’s Hoag Hospital’s ASPIRE program, tells Parentology all that worry may be for a good reason: children and teens today experience a significantly more “amplified” world compared to the one their parents and grandparents grew up in.