Children: Dangers of Screen Time

Baroness Barran Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

This is precisely why advice is provided by the Government—for example, through the Chief Medical Officer; by ParentZone through videos that it has produced specifically to focus on screen time, with practical advice to parents on how to set boundaries; and the early years guidance that I was talking about that links to the World Health Organization guidance, which, as the noble Lord says, identifies that there is really very little benefit, particularly from sedentary use of screen time, for very small children. I hope all those things will support parents in making the appropriate decisions to support their children in doing things other than simply looking at screens.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

Given what the Minister has just said and the points made by the noble Lord opposite, what is stopping the Government following the French health ministry in banning screens entirely in childcare settings for children under three?

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

I think here, once again, it is important that we are clear, first, about the evidence of the impact of screens and, secondly, that there are times when there are benefits from the active use of screens. I know that noble Lords opposite have pushed on bans—whether that is for mobile phones in schools or apparently a new ban now—but, while all of us are concerned about this, it is a complex area in which there are benefits as well as disbenefits. It is appropriate for us to build our policy developments and the practice in our schools and early years centres on evidence and that is why the Government are also working hard to build the evidence base in this area.