Prof Pasco Fearon, who helped draft the government guidance, said the committee did not want to give the impression that “screens are always terrible”.
“Very small or moderate amounts of screen time, particularly for children over two, doesn’t seem to be harmful”, he said.
Prof Fearon, a professor of developmental psychopathology at UCL, added that there is “some evidence that some forms of content on a screen can be positively helpful” for child development.
He cited the children’s programme Sesame Street, which was “explicitly designed to be educational”, adding some evidence shows the programme can “improve children’s early learning and language [acquisition]”.
He pointed out the “need for nuance” and said the guidance was not intended to be a set of hard-and-fast rules. “Every child’s needs and dispositions are different,” he said.
And for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), “the guidance should be thought about differently”, Prof Fearon said.
That’s because some children with additional needs can benefit from screen use, for example by “being able to interact with others through digital devices or as a means of calming down”.
