Effects of Excessive Screen Time on Child Development: An Updated Review and Strategies for Management
Open accessAbstract
Children's heavy reliance on screen media has raised serious public health issues since it might harm their cognitive, linguistic, and social-emotional growth. This study examines the effects of screen time on many developmental domains and covers management and limitation techniques for kids' screen usage. Screen media has a wide range of cognitive consequences, with both beneficial and detrimental effects noted. Screens can improve education and learning; however, too much time spent in front of a screen and multitasking with other media has been related to worse executive functioning and academic performance. As screen time reduces the amount and quality of interactions between children and their caregivers, it can also have an impact on language development. Contextual elements like co-viewing and topic appropriateness are key in determining how language development is impacted. Additionally, excessive screen usage has detrimental effects on social and emotional growth, including a rise in the likelihood of obesity, sleep disorders, and mental health conditions including depression and anxiety. It can obstruct the ability to interpret emotions, fuel aggressive conduct, and harm one's psychological health in general. Setting boundaries, utilizing parental controls, and demonstrating good screen behavior are all techniques that parents may use to manage children's screen usage. We can reduce the possible negative impacts of excessive screen time and promote children's healthy development and well-being by increasing knowledge and encouraging alternative activities that stimulate development.
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Digital spaces such as the metaverse provide positive contributions to educational, social, and psychological development of children and young people.
“Digital spaces, such as the metaverse, provide many positive contributions to the educational, social, and psychological development of children and young people (Muppalla et al., 2023), providing opportunities for increased inclusivity and its therapeutic support (Israni et al., 2020).”
From Virtual Reality Risks for Children in the Metaverse: An Examination through Criminological Perspectives (2026) · cites this paper as Muppalla et al., 2023
The Review (page unavailable) says screen media can support education and that high-quality content can enhance children’s social skills. It does not discuss the metaverse or establish positive psychological-development benefits; the Conclusions instead emphasize potential social-emotional harms from excessive screen use. The claim therefore extends the paper’s qualified findings to a setting and benefit it does not address. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredExcessive screen time and multitasking are associated with adverse effects on cognitive development, specifically in sensory-motor and language development.
“On the negative side, a research highlighted that excessive screen time and multitasking are associated with adverse effects on cognitive development, specifically in areas like sensory-motor and language development [15].”
From Impact of social media on cognitive development of children and young adults: a systematic review (2025) · cites this paper as [15]
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Impact of social media on cognitive development of children and young adults: a systematic review
Naik, V. S., Mathias, E. G., Krishnan, P., & Jagannath, V. (2025) · BMC Pediatrics · doi:10.1186/s12887-025-06041-5 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Muppalla, S. K., Vuppalapati, S., Reddy Pulliahgaru, A., & Sreenivasulu, H.
- Corresponding author
- Muppalla, Sudheer Kumar
- Venue
- Cureus
- Published
- 2023-06-18
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- e40608-e40608
- ISSN
- 2168-8184 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10353947
- OpenAlex
- W4381167165
- Cited by
- 284
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 78 · 2025: 133 · 2024: 68 · 2023: 5
- FWCI
- 17.24
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Cureus (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Child Development and Digital Technology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Methods and Impacts
- Keywords
- excessive screen time, child development, cognitive development, executive function, academic performance, language development, caregiver-child interaction, co-viewing, social-emotional development, childhood obesity, sleep disorders, anxiety and depression, aggression, parental control, screen time management, parental role modeling
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