Media & Technology
Description
A summary of the scientific literature on the impact of media and technology, including digital games and artificial intelligence (AI), on child development.
Components
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How This Impacts Children's Development
Description
Description
Digital and screen-based media, including social media and artificial intelligence, are increasingly present in the lives of children, adolescents, and their caregivers. Child development science offers parents, educators, and policymakers tools to understand how exposure to different types of media at different developmental stages affects the well-being of children.
Talking Points from the SRCD Briefs
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Policy Considerations in the Briefs
- Investing in positive youth development programs strengthens healthy development. Access to community spaces and out-of-school-time activities that foster meaningful relationships with peers and caring adults promotes belonging, resilience, and positive youth development while providing healthy alternatives to excessive digital media use.
- Federal agencies could develop research-based guidance or regulation for app stores on what constitutes an educational app.
- Policymakers should prioritize integrating AI literacy into early education, ensuring that children, parents, and educators understand how AI works, its limitations, and its effects on trust, relationships, and decision-making.
- AI systems designed for children should remain task-focused rather than fostering open-ended, human-like relationships, and should redirect youth to trusted adults when social or emotional needs arise.
- Policymakers should promote safer, privacy-protective AI environments for youth, such as monitored school-based platforms, while also investing in research to better understand AI’s long-term developmental impacts.
