Experts say it’s time to stop lecturing and start listening. — Photo by Giovanni Gagliardi on Unsplash
Teenagers are consuming digital media more than ever before, spending an average of nearly two hours per day on YouTube and 1.5 hours per day on TikTok alone. And that doesn’t sit right with some of their parents. About half of teens who report spending a lot of time online say that they argue with their parents about it, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last year.
Experts say it’s time to stop lecturing and start listening. Exposure to negative video content like violence, substance use, self-harm or unhealthy body images may be harmful to teenagers, but adults can buffer the ill effects by initiating open conversations, according to the American Psychological Association’s new guidelines on healthy video viewing for adolescents, which were released last week.
