Lowe Belinda M, Smith Moira, Jaine Richard, Stanley James, Gage Ryan, Signal Louise
Department of Public Health, University of Otago Wellington.
N Z Med J. 2023 Jul 7;136(1578):12-31. doi: 10.26635/6965.6023.
Children's screen use has increased rapidly in recent years, yet little is known about this use in real-time due to reliance on self-report or proxy data sources. Screens provide benefits such as educational content and social connection, but also pose health risks including obesity, depression, poor sleep and poor cognitive performance. In this cross-sectional observational study, we aimed to determine the nature and extent of children's after-school screen time using wearable cameras.
Children aged 11-13 years took part in the New Zealand Kids'Cam project in 2014/2015. Each child wore a camera that passively captured images of their surroundings every 7 seconds. Images from 108 children were manually coded.
Children spent over a third of their time on screens, including over half their time after 8pm. Television accounted for the highest proportion of screen time (42.4%), followed by computers (32.0%), mobile devices (13.0%) and tablets (12.6%). Approximately 10% of children's screen time involved multiple screen use.
Guidelines are needed to promote healthy screen time behaviour among children. Further research is also needed to monitor the impact of screens on children's wellbeing, including any socio-demographic differences, and to identify innovations to protect children from harm in the online space.
近年来儿童使用电子屏幕的时间迅速增加，但由于依赖自我报告或代理数据源，对于这种实时使用情况知之甚少。电子屏幕能带来诸如教育内容和社交联系等益处，但也会带来健康风险，包括肥胖、抑郁、睡眠不佳和认知能力差等问题。在这项横断面观察性研究中，我们旨在使用可穿戴摄像头确定儿童课后使用电子屏幕的性质和程度。
11至13岁的儿童于2014/2015年参与了新西兰儿童摄像头项目。每个孩子都佩戴了一个摄像头，该摄像头每7秒被动拍摄一次周围环境的图像。对108名儿童的图像进行了人工编码。
儿童花费超过三分之一的时间在电子屏幕上，包括晚上8点之后超过一半的时间。电视在屏幕使用时间中占比最高（42.4%），其次是电脑（32.0%）、移动设备（13.0%）和平板电脑（12.6%）。大约10%的儿童屏幕使用时间涉及同时使用多个屏幕。
需要制定指导方针以促进儿童形成健康的屏幕使用时间行为。还需要进一步研究来监测屏幕对儿童幸福感的影响，包括任何社会人口统计学差异，并确定保护儿童免受网络空间伤害的创新方法。
