Eye-Smart Surfing for Kids: Managing Screen Time and Protecting Vision in a Digital Age

Kids these days are exposed to much more screen time than previous generations. Not only do they interact with digital devices during their recreational hours, but they also use them as primary instruments in school. The further adoption of these gadgets kicked into high gear in the aftermath of the pandemic, with studies finding a considerable increase and significant prevalence of headaches, eye aches, and vision weakness in students taking online classes. Computer vision syndrome has become a genuine concern for school-age children, so parents must find ways to protect them from its effects.  

Thankfully, there are many ways to stay eye-smart, even as surfing becomes a mainstay in children's lives in the digital age. 

Set screen time limits

The best way to manage the impact of screens on your kids’ eyes is to limit how much time they spend in front of them. Establish daily or weekly screen time limits for your kids so they don’t strain their eyes with extended use. You may even want to set designated online hours to ensure other parts of the day are spent socializing with the family, resting, and engaging in outdoor play. 

Guidelines from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) indicate that non-educational screen time for children ages two to five should be one hour per weekday and three hours during weekends. For children ages six and up, you should encourage exploration of activities that aren’t directly tied to screen use. Inclusive of educational pursuits, you generally want to limit screen time to four hours at the most for teens. 

Reduce blue light exposure 

Phones, tablets, TVs, computers, and even LED lights regularly expose your children to blue light. In excess, this can damage the cells inside the retina and cause vision problems in the long run. Children have more sensitive eyes, which means they are also at a higher risk of eye strain from extended periods of blue light exposure. Since a lot of recreational and educational activities require kids to interact with some form of digital screen, it’s best to use tools that can minimize exposure.

You can equip your child with blue light glasses to filter out any blue-violet light from the sun and artificial sources before it gets to their eyes. Cat & Jack creates frames specifically for children fitted with blue light lenses. You can also opt for standardized non-prescription models from major brands, like the Oakley 0OY3002 and Ray-Ban 0RY1554. If you want to block blue light from the source, you can also get a blue light screen protector for your home devices. Many variants cover different phone models, monitors, TV screens, and handheld devices. Any brand following the universal measure set by Eyesafe and TUV Rheinland should have optical films blocking the riskiest wavelength of 435 to 440 nm.

Teach proper screen distance and usage

How you surf also makes a massive difference regarding long-term vision. For handheld devices, teach your children to keep them at least a foot away from their eyes. As for stationary things like your TV, a game console, or a computer, they should sit at least 20 to 30 inches away. Although modern devices don’t have the same harmful effects as their predecessors, being too close to the screen causes discomfort after some time. 

It would be best to teach your kids about optimal screen brightness, with overly bright or dim settings equally being bad for the eyes. Phones should generally be around 600 nits, and anywhere above 300 should do for monitors. Device brightness should be set to around 50% to 75%, depending on room lighting. 

With a few simple steps, you can encourage your children to take a healthier approach to screen time and ensure their eyes stay safe as they grow up.