Dad Takes Devices From Kids, Tells Them to Play OutsideâHere's How It Went
A dad who made his children ditch their devices and go outside has gone viral on social media after sharing footage of the results. Excessive screen time is a source of some concern to parents today. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey from 2023, 50.4 percent of teenagers aged 12 to 17 had four hours or more of daily screen time, while 22.8 percent had three hours, 17.8 percent had two hours, 6.1 percent had one hour and 3 percent had less than one hour of daily screen time. Meanwhile, a 2023 study published in Cureus found that excessive screen time negatively affected sensorimotor development, executive functioning and academic performance. Early exposure, in particular, was found to be linked to lower cognitive abilities and academic outcomes. But parents often face an uphill struggle to properly ration and regulate screen time, particularly as it has stretched beyond the careful consideration of television and computer time to the management of smartphones, tablets and other media devices. Offering up screen-free entertainment as an alternative is one thing, but as the saying goes, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." Charles Lavea, a dad of two young daughters in Auckland, New Zealand, knows that first hand, having attempted to get his kids to take a break from screen time. "It was a nice day outside," Lavea told Newsweek. "I thought we could go get food and eat at the park." Eager for his kids to take a break from screens, he took one extra step. "I took my daughters' devices, phones and iPads, off them and left them at home," he said. "I wanted them to get some sun and fresh air, so we went." After they finished their lunch, Lavea discovered his kids were "in no mood to play." He captured the depths of their apparent despair at being apart from their devices in a video, which he posted on his TikTok account.
