To the Editor:

I would like to address a subject that is becoming a public health concern, especially to our children. The subject is the amount of screen time our kids use. The NIH (National Institutes of Health) did a study starting in 2018 that looked at the effects of screen time on kids.

We all pretty much know through common sense that a child needs to be out and about doing things with family and other children. The studies though are more frightening to me than I first thought. Too much screen time (more than an hour or two a day) showed an impact on the actual physical development of the brain! This all has an impact on the language development and social and emotional growth.

With all the things our children are exposed to on social media it would seem that now is the time to start to seriously look at the time we allow our kids to watch all that is put out there for our kids to see. Let’s get our kids out there doing some of the things we did as youngsters. Sports, board games, family outings to special events. Even just visiting other families. We owe it to our kids to take screen time and the amount we allow seriously! We are robbing our kids of health and happiness by not addressing the amount of time we allow them to have on social media.

I tell my grandchildren that I don’t think anyone under 12 should have a phone. They think I’m joking, But I’m not. We have a responsibility to protect our children from the harm of screen time and social media. We should call it anti-social media. Let’s not disregard our children’s health and well-being.

Jim Lee Hulsey

Larned