As in previous years, a large majority of parents in the study mainly endorse the positive effects of media, such as improved language development and numeracy skills. They also consider media beneficial for creativity. However, parents are insufficiently aware of the harmful long-term effects. Only a quarter of parents are concerned about negative effects such as myopia or obesity.

World Health Organization guidelines greatly exceeded

This year too, parents endorse most of the positive effects of media more strongly and the negative aspects less strongly. Highly educated parents in particular are less concerned than other parents about the negative effects of media on young children. It is striking, however, that more than half of parents report regularly seeing negative effects of media use in their child, such as hyperactive or defiant behavior, shyness or sleep problems.

Children appear to spend a great deal of time using media. On average, children aged 0 to 6 spend an hour and a half each day on various media activities. This exceeds the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), which are also followed by the sector association for socially responsible childcare and other advisory or support organizations. They recommend that children under 2 use as little media as possible, preferably, and that children up to the age of 5 use media for a maximum of 1 hour per day. Numerous international studies show a link between excessive media use and health problems. These include obesity, myopia, difficulty falling asleep or insufficient sleep, as well as effects on school performance and interactions with other children. To prevent these negative effects of media, it is important that children learn to use media consciously, safely and healthily from an early age.

“This is the tenth year in which the Iene Miene Media study has been conducted. A great deal has happened in those ten years. Recent developments in particular, such as the coronavirus pandemic, have had a major influence on how parents manage to devote time to parenting and how they and their children use media in this context. In addition, it appears that the extent to which parents watch and participate together with their children is lower than in previous years, a declining trend that was already visible earlier. Because media devices such as smartphones and (children’s) tablets are becoming increasingly easy to operate and are also increasingly geared toward individual use, parents have fewer and fewer opportunities to use media together with their children. As a result, the urgency of media education also seems to be fading further into the background, which is a worrying development. It is important that we give children guidance on media use from an early age,” says Prof. Dr. Peter Nikken, professor of Youth & Media at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences.

Parents have little uncertainty about their media knowledge

Parents are aware that their knowledge of dealing with media in raising their child is limited. Only three in ten parents believe they have sufficient knowledge. Yet parents do not seem to feel uncertain about this. Fewer than 10% of parents feel insecure when discussing media education with other parents. Nor do they rate their knowledge of children and media lower than that of other parents.

Prof. Nikken calls for more policies and activities to support and advise parents: “The choices parents make are understandable. Parenting is not easy, and life is often hectic. So keeping children occupied with a screen is an easy and quick option that benefits both children and parents. But media education is and remains an important topic, precisely because children spend so much time with screens. Libraries, parent-child centers, general practitioners, childcare providers and schools, as well as the media industries, can help parents with this. They can advise on how to give genuine attention to media and your young child in the upbringing, how to choose media that are well suited to young children’s stage of development, and how to maintain a balance between media use and offline activities.”

Coronavirus pandemic has no lasting effects on media use

However, the coronavirus pandemic of the past two years does not appear to have had a lasting effect on media use among children aged 0 to 6. Whereas last year seven in ten parents said they noticed an impact of coronavirus on their children, that figure is now only half. The impact is mainly reflected in the amount of time the child spends behind a screen compared with previous years (18%), although this figure has approximately halved compared with 2021. With schools reopening, however, there appears to have been a slight increase (from 4% to 6%) in the number of children experiencing problems online, such as arguments, bullying or being hacked.

Swipe, step, leap

Every year, Netwerk Mediawijsheid organizes the Media Ukkie Days, drawing attention to media literacy in the upbringing of children aged 0 to 6. This year, the Media Ukkie Days take place from 25 March to 1 April 2022, with the theme “swipe, step, leap.” This year’s topics include questions such as: ‘Can you let a child play alone with a tablet, TV, smartphone or book, or is playing together better?’, ‘How do you guide a child step by step through the ‘digital world’?’, ‘How do you use media so that a child also learns from it and makes leaps forward?’, ‘And how do you make choices that align with the child’s development?’ More than 150 organizations and institutions are organizing activities during the Media Ukkie Days to help parents with these questions. For more information about the event and activities: www.mediaukkiedagen.nl