Parents want to cut kids' screen time. Can it work?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Children are attached to their screens. But research has suggested that social media and excessive screen use can lead to physical and mental health problems. So what happens when parents start to limit screen time?
Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with reporter Caitlin Gibson about why some parents are limiting their children’s access to screens and devices. And Caitlin shares tips parents can use to help set boundaries when it comes to the technology their kids have access to.
Today’s show was produced by Thomas Lu and Rennie Svirnovskiy, with help from Emma Talkoff and Lucas Trevor. It was mixed by Sam Bair, and edited by Peter Bresnan.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So, Caitlin, we're going to talk today about kids and their screen time. |
| 0:06.5 | You and I, we were pregnant at the same time, and we were on maternity leave together. |
| 0:11.5 | Our daughters are now seven, almost eight, which is hard to believe. |
| 0:15.7 | Really hard to believe. |
| 0:18.1 | So in our house, our daughter, she has TV access, sometimes she has access to our phones, though not as often as she would like, but she does not have an iPad. |
| 0:28.4 | This has been a big point of contention between us and her. I'm curious, how do you handle screens with your kids? |
| 0:37.1 | Yeah, similar. |
| 0:38.7 | Our kids, you know, they watch movies. |
| 0:40.9 | They have TV shows that they watch. |
| 0:42.8 | They have tablets that are for travel only. |
| 0:45.9 | So they do not have access to them at home, ever. |
| 0:48.7 | They literally come out when we're either on a really long car drive or we're getting on an airplane, |
| 0:53.8 | which makes the long car drives and the airplanes |
| 0:56.9 | way more doable, I will say. |
| 0:59.1 | And exciting for them. |
| 1:00.0 | Yeah, exciting for them, |
| 1:01.0 | because it's not something that they have access to otherwise, |
| 1:03.2 | so there's that kind of special feeling. |
| 1:04.9 | But that's how we've handled it so far. |
| 1:09.5 | Caitlin Gibson writes about families, parenting, and children for The Post. |
| 1:13.4 | And she has spent a lot of time thinking about a question that many, many other parents |
| 1:18.0 | struggle with, when, or even if, to give kids access to things like iPads, tablets, and phones. |
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