Parents support digital technology for learning but want clearer limits around recreational screen use, particularly as children move into secondary school, new NSW research has found.
A survey of 1,686 NSW parents has found broad support for limits on children’s screen use, although parents are more willing to allow screen time when it is being used for learning.
The findings are part of the Best Practice in Screen Use for Education – Survey Findings report, released by a 16-member research team involving academics from all 11 NSW universities. The project was funded by the NSW Government and surveyed students, parents, teachers, school leaders and pre-service teachers about screen use at school and at home.
Parents generally supported having limits across all four areas examined: learning and leisure, both at school and outside school.
However, there was a clear difference between learning and leisure.
Eighty-four per cent of parents supported a limit on leisure screen use at school, compared with 66 per cent supporting a limit on screen use for learning outside school. Outside school, 86 per cent supported a limit on leisure screen use, compared with 66 per cent for learning.
The limits parents suggested also varied according to age.
For school-based learning, parents who supported a limit suggested an average of 73 minutes for primary students and 140 minutes for secondary students. For school-based leisure, the suggested average was much lower, at 24 minutes for both primary and secondary students.
Outside school, parents suggested an average of 52 minutes of screen use for learning for primary students and 100 minutes for secondary students. For leisure, the figures were 55 minutes for primary students and 91 minutes for secondary students.
The findings do not point to parents wanting schools to remove technology from learning.
Almost two-thirds of parents, 64 per cent, agreed that digital devices are important for their child’s learning. This rose to 71 per cent among parents of secondary students, compared with 55 per cent among parents of primary students.
About 54 per cent said they were happy with how technology was being used for learning at their child’s school.
However, parents were less convinced that the benefits of technology outweighed its disadvantages. Only 39 per cent agreed with this statement, including 45 per cent of secondary parents and 32 per cent of primary parents.
Concerns about the amount of screen time devoted to learning also increased with age. Almost one in four primary parents, 23 per cent, felt their child spent too much time using screens for learning, rising to 37 per cent among secondary parents.
Leisure and social use generated stronger concerns. More than half of parents, 52 per cent, said their child spent too much time playing or socialising on screens. This rose from 35 per cent among primary parents to 68 per cent among secondary parents.
Parents also expressed concerns about what children encounter online.
More than half, 55 per cent, were concerned their child could be exposed to inappropriate content or people online, while 60 per cent were concerned about the effect of screen use on their child’s privacy.
There was a substantial difference in parents’ confidence in their children’s online safety knowledge. Only 36 per cent of primary parents said their child knew how to stay safe online, compared with 65 per cent of secondary parents.
The researchers also found that parents from households where languages other than English were mainly spoken were less likely to believe their child knew how to stay safe online. Thirty-eight per cent reported confidence in their child’s online safety knowledge, compared with 54 per cent among parents in English-speaking households.
These parents were also more likely to want additional guidance from their child’s school. Seventy-two per cent said they wanted more school guidance about screen use, compared with 43 per cent of parents from English-speaking households.
Most parents are already setting boundaries around screen use.
Eighty-three per cent said they restrict the amount of time their child can spend on screens on school days. This included 93 per cent of primary parents and 74 per cent of secondary parents.
Three-quarters of parents also said they manage screen use by telling their child what they are allowed to do.
However, the use of technology-based controls was less common. Thirty-eight per cent of parents reported using built-in screen-time controls on their child’s device, while only about 7 per cent reported using school-provided filtering apps.
Schools were one of several major sources of information for parents. Thirty-seven per cent said they used schools for guidance about managing screen use, the same proportion as those who used official websites or searched online. Other parents, media and news outlets and social media were also sources of advice.
The researchers said the findings point towards the value of clearer expectations between schools and families, along with practical guidance to help children develop self-management skills.
For parents, the findings suggest the issue is less about choosing between technology and no technology and more about considering why, when and how children are using screens.
The research team will combine the survey findings with further focus groups and classroom observations before producing its final recommendations and a Quality Screen Use Toolkit for students, parents, teachers and school leaders.
For parents: The full Best Practice in Screen Use for Education – Survey Findings report is available from the Screens in Education project. Read the full report