Dr. Roxie Ed urges families and schools to limit 'problematic' screen use for youth

Dr. Roxie Ed, a researcher who said she served as research director at the UW Child Development Lab and co-founded the consulting group Those Media Moms, told a public audience that screens have both benefits and risks and that families and schools can take concrete steps to reduce harms.

"I don't think screens are evil," Dr. Roxie Ed said, adding that the challenge is when screen use becomes excessive, hard to control, or displaces sleep, school and relationships. She described problematic media use as when devices interfere with daily life and linked that pattern to increased isolation, anxiety, depression and poor sleep.

Putting the concern in context, Dr. Roxie Ed cited 2023 Wisconsin Youth Risk Behavior Survey results and said "over half of our students are reporting anxiety" and "over a third are reporting depression," calling those findings a prompt to examine whether media use is one factor among many affecting youth mental health.

She summarized research on adolescent brain development, explaining that the amygdala (emotion and reward) is highly active in adolescence while the prefrontal cortex (decision-making and impulse control) ‘‘finishes developing around 25 years of age,’’ which can make adolescents particularly sensitive to attention-grabbing, unpredictable digital content.

Dr. Roxie Ed noted average reported entertainment use from survey data: about "5 and 1/2" hours daily for 8–11-year-olds and about "8 and 1/2 hours" for 11–18-year-olds. She emphasized that total minutes matter less than what media displaces and the content and context of use—multitasking during school or mealtimes can mean screens are crowding out sleep and relationships.

The speaker warned against equating association with causation: researchers have observed parallels between rising social media use and worsening youth mental-health indicators, but she said stronger causal research is still needed. She also cited experts sounding the alarm, including books by Dr. Jonathan Haidt and a statement from the U.S. Surgeon General, as part of a broader professional concern about social media design and youth well-being.

To prevent problematic media use, Dr. Roxie Ed recommended the American Academy of Pediatrics' five C's—child, content, calm, crowding out and communication—and added a sixth C, context. Practical steps she advised included co-creating family media plans, establishing screen-free zones (dining rooms, bedrooms), protecting sleep (teens need about 8–10 hours), turning off nonessential notifications and modeling healthy device use.

She urged schools to partner with families by clarifying phone-ban policies, explaining how school devices and firewalls are managed, and teaching digital wellness in addition to digital literacy. She said "a law signed last October" will require Wisconsin public schools to have phone bans in place this fall, but the presentation did not specify the statute or citation.

Dr. Roxie Ed closed by listing resources—Common Sense Media, the AAP Center of Excellence on Media and Mental Health calm toolbox, and the Boston Children's Digital Wellness Lab—and encouraged open, nonjudgmental conversations between adults and young people about media use. She invited attendees to scan QR codes on her slides for practical tools and conversation starters.

The presentation concluded with an offer to reserve time for audience questions and answers.