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Today’s children are growing up in an environment dominated by screens. Whether it is learning in school through computer or tablet use, relaxing at home with video games and TV, or communicating with friends on their phones and social media, time spent on screens has become an essential part of modern life.

Despite this, much has been made in the media about the alleged dangers of screen time and the risks that it poses to our young people’s health. As a paediatrician, I regularly speak with parents concerned about the amount of time their children spend glued to gadgets – but this screen time panic isn’t new. People have been voicing concerns about the harms of spending too much time on screens since the invention of television.

The truth is, the evidence for direct harm by screen time has always been contested. Although existing research demonstrates negative associations between screen time and mental health, sleep and fitness, we cannot be confident that these links are causal, or whether other factors are causing both negative health outcomes and higher screen time. In fact, some more recent high-quality studies show that some screen time is better for mental health than none at all.

To help clear things up, we at the UK’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have to help families better manage their use of screens.

We recommend that parents approach screen time in a way that works with the child’s developmental age, the individual needs and the value the family places on positive activities such as socialising, exercise and sleep.

Rather than setting time limits on screen use – for which evidence is weak – parents should feel empowered to adjust the amount of time spent on screens by all members of the family, depending on what is important to them and their children.

Our guidance poses a series of questions that aim to help families make decisions about their screen time use, including:

• Is your family’s screen time under control?
• Does screen use interfere with what your family want to do?
• Does screen use interfere with sleep?
• Are you able to control snacking during screen time use?

If families can consider these questions and be satisfied with the answers, they can feel reassured that they are doing the best that they can with this tricky and ever-evolving issue. We hope that through open and frank conversations between parents and their children, screen time can be kept under control and become a normal, healthy part of modern family life.