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What screen time does to children's brains is more complicated than it seems

Screen time has become synonymous with bad news - but the science may not be as straightforward as it seems

When Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology from San Diego State University, began researching rising depression rates among US teenagers, she did not set out to prove that social media and smartphones were "terrible," she tells me. Looking back, my youngest child's tantrum over the iPad alarmed me at the time - but on reflection I've experienced similar performances over non-screen related activities: like when he was playing hide and seek with his brothers and didn't want to get ready for bed. And, all the while, with screens becoming glasses, social media regrouping around smaller communities, and people using AI chatbots to help with homework or even for therapy - the tech that's already in our lives is rapidly evolving, whether or not we let our children access it.

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