What impact do movies and video games have on children?

Sharing the result of some extensive research I did on this topic (for my personal interest as a parent of 3 young children and for my startup): - there is evidence of adverse effects of screen time on children related to obesity. - there is very clear evidence of developmental gaps consecutive to excessive (> 3 or 4 hours per day) consumption from an early age. - some more recent studies on brain development also point out such negative effects even from 1 - 2 hours per day. But it seems the "way to consume screen content" has also to be considered - such as co-watching videos with an adult. Many pediatrics consider that screen time is a missed opportunity for small children. At an age when their brain is developing the most, they need to spend time exploring, experimenting, and discovering the world with all their senses, which does not really happen when just sitting in front of a video. According to the 2020 survey by Common Sense, kids in the US will have spent one full year of their active time watching videos/playing video games by the age of 8... that's a lot of time they could have spent doing something else, that would have been beneficial to stimulate their growth as a whole! https://www.commonsensemedia.org...

I think, more than anything, it encourages the notion that the best entertainment/interactions come through technology, which simply isn't the case. I always hear mixed evidence on how the specific content affects developing brains.

I think children are spending more time on entertainment part instead of doing indoor activities, especially in recent corona time. also, many children are becoming more creative as earlier

As someone who is actively into Psychology and literally does research every other day for a newsletter, trust me it has a huge one. Especially on children whose pre-frontal cortex hasn't formed in the young age, it does have certain impacts.

Too much time spent in isolation playing video games will have a negative impact. Looking back, I'm glad that my parents only allowed me to play The Sims for a maximum of 45 minutes per day...young me definitely wasn't happy with that decision though!

games may not be my concern, per se (I have two young-ish boys), but in retrospect, I wish we hadn't ok'd laptops in their room...because they live in increasing isolation

I think, in moderation, video games are a great thing. They teach a ton of situational awareness, challenge people to make decisions (often on a global scale), help deal with mental challenges, and develop creativity. Same goes for TV - good series are highly philosophical and thought-provoking. So, if a parent spends some time helping kids analyze and interpret TV content, that could be really formative.

90s kids spent way more time with friends, family, or just being outside. Today's kids - not that much. But still, these things are good for language and cognitive skills but surely not the best idea for building social skills which are probably. the most important part of our lives. Btw, we’re launching in late May. Check out our upcoming PH page: www.producthunt.com/upcoming/eff... Our project is called: Effecto. It’s an app for detailed habits, health, symptoms, and meds tracking. Pretty much for everything that is related to your physical or mental health and every daily factor that can affect you.

It depends on which movies they watch and games they play, but, nevertheless, it has a negative impact on them. I limited access to TV for my children. I think they should spend more time playing and communicating with other children. Sunday is our family movie day when they can choose a movie and we watch it together. Here https://www.firestickhow.com/bes... we found Kodi and now we use only this streaming service to watch something.