Federal health officials are urging families to set stronger boundaries around phones, tablets and other screens through a new “5 D’s” strategy aimed at reducing harmful screen use and encouraging children to spend more time sleeping, exercising and interacting face to face.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
The Trump administration is expanding a federal campaign to reduce excessive screen use among children, giving parents a five-part strategy — discuss, do, delay, divert and disconnect — as health officials point to concerns involving sleep, physical activity, eyesight, mental health, learning and childhood development.
The initiative was a central focus of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Live Real Life Symposium held Sept. 1 in Washington, where leaders from technology, medicine, research, education, government and advocacy organizations gathered to discuss children’s screen habits and possible interventions. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz were among the administration officials participating.
Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, director of National Health Communications for the Office of the Surgeon General, said children’s susceptibility to unhealthy technology habits prompted federal officials to intensify their efforts.
“They are so vulnerable. So we had to sound the alarm, and here we are. We’re doing something about it,“ Haridopolos said.
The Office of the Surgeon General’s approach gives parents and caregivers five broad actions for establishing healthier technology habits. “Discuss” calls for families to establish expectations and talk with children about what they encounter online. “Do” encourages adults to model the technology habits they want children to adopt. “Delay” recommends postponing screen exposure and access to devices when appropriate. “Divert” directs children toward alternatives such as exercise, homework, music, chores and sports, while “disconnect” calls for recurring periods when the entire family puts screens away, including during meals and before bedtime.
Haridopolos said those changes can begin with ordinary family routines rather than requiring technology to disappear completely.
“Talk to your family,” Haridopolos said. “Be all on the same page. Make sure that you just carve out times, like family meals. We should interact, with eye contact and social interaction. And then at night, put that phone away and get a good night’s sleep. And if you’re in a car with your family, talk to them, tell stories.”
The Surgeon General’s Office has also produced resources for parents and children, including a toolkit and a family-oriented book titled The Magic Tablet. The book follows children who replace time on an electronic tablet with drawing, imagination and play and is intended to reinforce the broader Live Real Life campaign.
Read ‘The Magic Table’ here.
Federal health officials say their concern extends beyond the amount of time children spend looking at screens. The Surgeon General’s advisory states that early screen exposure is associated with developmental and cognitive risks, excessive use among school-age children is linked with poorer educational and health outcomes, and adolescents face additional concerns involving mental and behavioral health. Screen use can also interfere with sleep, which plays an important role in learning, mood, behavior and physical development.
Haridopolos pointed specifically to projections involving childhood myopia, or nearsightedness.
“Forty percent of kids by 2050 will be having nearsightedness, meaning they can’t see far,” Haridopolos continued. “We need to make sure that kids are getting screened earlier in life, but they are not being exposed to tablets and phones too close that are straining their eyes.”
The Surgeon General’s advisory cites research projecting that nearly 40% of children worldwide could be myopic by 2050.
Haridopolos also linked prolonged screen use with reduced physical activity and broader concerns about childhood obesity.
“We have a large percentage of the population that is obese, and really being on screens does cause sedentary behavior, and then does cause problems with not being active and crowding out all the normal activity that we should be doing in life,” she said.
Mental and cognitive development are also part of the administration’s focus.
“And we know the anxiety, depression, but more importantly, neurocognitive, memory, attention, literacy issues, and just poor academic scores,” Haridopolos said.
The federal campaign arrives as states increasingly restrict student cellphone use during the school day. At least 40 states have enacted some form of policy concerning cellphones in schools, although those rules differ considerably, ranging from requirements that individual districts establish policies to broader restrictions lasting throughout the school day.
Haridopolos pointed to those state actions, changing household habits and participation from technology companies as signs that concerns about children’s screen exposure are gaining wider attention. The report singled out Google-owned YouTube as a notable absentee from the recent federal gathering.
The symposium also followed a major settlement involving Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Meta agreed in August to a multistate settlement worth up to $17.1 billion resolving allegations that its platforms employed addictive features and exposed young users to harm. The agreement covers 51 state, district and territorial jurisdictions and requires significant new protections for minors.
Among those changes are daily usage limits, nighttime restrictions, stronger age-assurance procedures and limitations during school hours. Push notifications for young users are to be disabled on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. during the school year.
Kennedy used the Live Real Life gathering to call on the broader technology industry to take greater responsibility for the amount of time children spend within digital platforms.
“Children spend enormous amounts of their waking time in technology ecosystems, and that is why big tech has to act to protect our children,” Kennedy said.
HHS said the initiative is intended to help families place technology within defined limits rather than allow screens to displace activities officials consider important to childhood development. The department’s broader campaign encourages children to spend more time playing, exercising, exploring, sleeping and interacting directly with other people while giving parents practical methods for setting boundaries around technology use.
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