Increasingly harmful screen time among children and teenagers has become a public health concern in the U.S., a new surgeon general’s advisory warned Wednesday, with negative mental and physical impacts that compound with age.
The advisory urges a whole-of-society approach to addressing the issue, from delaying kids’ access to devices and online platforms for as long as possible to instituting school bans, modelling healthy online behaviour and promoting physical activity.
It warns that exposure to screens — including phones, tablets, computers and video games — is often starting before a child’s first birthday and increases as they grow older, a trend that U.S. health officials want to disrupt.
“By adolescence, children may spend more time on screens than sleeping or attending school,” the report says, with kids aged 13 to 18 on average spending over eight hours per day endlessly scrolling, texting or engaging online.
That early exposure can lead to developmental and cognitive risks including difficulties in attention, behaviour and social skills, according to the advisory, which reviewed available research and evidence on the health impacts of screen time among youth.
It says excessive screen time is linked to poor educational and health outcomes for school-aged children, with additional mental health impacts among teenagers “particularly related to social media use.”
The report also warns of impacts from poorer sleep, obesity risk, reduced physical activity and cardiovascular health impacts from prolonged screen use.
It says increased screen-based activities have been linked to a higher risk of myopia, or nearsightedness, with research predicting almost 40 per cent of children worldwide will be myopic by 2050.
The authors also raise growing concerns around cyberbullying, sextortion, gambling addiction, substance abuse, depression and suicidal ideation linked to excessive screen time and social media use, with effects lasting well beyond childhood and adolescence.
While research and evidence continues to evolve, the advisory says officials and society “cannot wait for every question to be settled before acting,” as technology is “now embedded in daily life and is not going away.”
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The advisory was spearheaded by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, rather than the U.S. surgeon general’s office itself, as the position is currently vacant.
While the Public Health Agency of Canada has not issued a similar advisory from the chief medical health officer recently, it has supported research that has reached similar findings as those cited in the U.S. advisory.
A 2025 study found youth that spend less than two hours per day on recreational screen time were more likely to report high levels of positive mental health and happiness compared to those who exceeded that time.
The study cites Canada’s 24-Hour Movement Guidelines which includes the under-two-hour recreational screen time recommendation for people aged five and above.
The U.S. advisory says children on average exceed two hours of screen time by the age of two.
Toddlers and preschoolers should not exceed one hour of screen time, the Canadian guidelines say, adding “less is better,” while screen time for children under two is “not recommended.”
In March, the Canadian Pediatrics Society released similar guidelines and tips for parents on how to limit screen use at home.
A Health Canada spokesperson pointed Global News to the existing guidelines and added it would pass along any health advisory it publishes in the future on the subject.
The U.S. advisory warns social media platforms and artificial intelligence-powered products like chatbots are built to promote “engagement,” which can create a path to addiction-like behaviour for young people.
It urges those companies to display warnings to users about the risks of harmful amounts of screen use and “nudge children to engage in other activities that have health benefits,” such as outdoor play and time with friends and family.
The report also calls for more research funding to better understand the link between screen time and youth mental and physical health, and for policymakers to pursue regulations for tech platforms to better protect privacy, reduce addiction and offer parental controls.
Parents, health practitioners, educators and young people themselves are encouraged to model healthy behaviour and set limits on screen time.
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