20 English summary

Forstørr bilde

20.1 Introduction and background

The Government appointed the Screen Use Committee to strengthen the evidence base on how children’s and adolescents’ screen use in kindergarten, school and leisure time affects their health, quality of life, learning, and upbringing. In areas where the committee identifies that particular challenges are sufficiently documented, the committee was tasked with providing input on policy development and advise on the need for measures.

Most Norwegian children and adolescents enjoy a good quality of life. They thrive in school, at home, and with friends and are optimistic about the future. Nevertheless, some trends are pointing in the wrong direction. More young people are reporting poor mental health, in particular young girls. In schools, it is concerning that studies indicate a decline in skills such as reading, mathematics, science and understanding of democracy.

In private and public discussions, many of the negative trends are being linked to children’s and adolescents’ increasing use of digital technology. The mandate of the Screen Use Committee highlights that the increase in screen use became even more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, raising concerns about the impact on children’s health and quality of life.

The Committee appreciates that it has been given a broad mandate which allows it to examine children’s and adolescents’ screen use in context. However, the Committee also emphasises that our understanding of children’s and adolescents’ health, upbringing and well-being cannot be limited to screen use and engagement in digital arenas. Their lives also encompass a range of other arenas and aspects, alongside broader societal trends, all of which are of considerable significance.

Moreover, a screen is not just a screen. In our work, the Committee has sought to bring nuance to the broader concept of screen use. How technology is used, what it is used for, when it is used, and with whom it is used is often just as important as the amount of time spent and the characteristics of the screens themselves. In some contexts, we have also included other forms of digital technology in the report, particularly in the chapters on kindergartens and schools.

In kindergartens, digital technology is used for a variety of purposes and does not necessarily involve a screen. For example, some kindergartens use robots for play and exploration and smartphones to play music or audiobooks. Tablets are used to find instructions for beading and drawing or to create picture books that result in an analogue activity, even if the activity began with a screen. In schools, pupils’ and apprentices’ formative development and education are intended to enable them to navigate life and participate in working life and society. They are children when they enter the school system and formally adults, with the right to vote and the right to live independent lives, by the time they complete upper secondary education. The use of digital technology cannot be isolated from other factors that influence what and how pupils learn. A nuanced approach is therefore required when discussing screen use in kindergartens and schools.

In their leisure time, children’s and adolescents’ digital lives are also intertwined with their analogue lives, and screen use must therefore be understood in a broader context. All our children and adolescents are unique individuals, and the Committee has been tasked with considering which children are particularly vulnerable, and which children may particularly benefit from various types of screen use. Children and adolescents are different but they have the same rights. The rights and best interests of the child have been central to the Committee’s work. Children’s rights to privacy, participation, freedom of expression and information, and protection from harmful content must be balanced when assessing measures that affect children’s and adolescents’ screen use.

Today, screens are an integrated part of everyday life in most families, and children and adolescents are influenced by their parents’ screen use. Therefore, the Committee has chosen to include parental screen use as a topic, where relevant.

Recently, the Government launched a Digitalisation Strategy with the stated goal of making Norway the most digitalised country in the world by 2030. For such an ambitious goal to be realistic, the population must trust that the desired development is safe, not least for our children and adolescents. We need digital competence and a broad, knowledge-based, nuanced and balanced debate about how digital life is affecting us and our children. The Screen Use Committee hopes that this report can contribute to such a debate. This is why the Committee’s most important contribution is a broad and comprehensive evidence base on how screen use can affect children’s health, quality of life, learning and upbringing.

20.2 Ensuring balanced, safe and healthy screen use

20.2.1 Screen use in leisure time

In the first five years of life, the brain is developing rapidly and is particularly sensitive to influences. Research has found no evidence to suggest that screen use can have positive effects on the development of young children. Therefore, the Screen Use Committee believes it is important to strictly limit screen use for children under two years of age.

For all children—and particularly for the youngest children—it is important to balance screen use with activities that promote development and learning. Children are not able to regulate their screen use and are dependent on parents and other adults to limit and quality assure such use. Evidence suggests that when children between the ages of two and five are exposed to screens, it may be beneficial for their mental health, development, and language acquisition that their parents use it together with them. In addition, the content should be age-appropriate.

Although many parents worry about the consequences of screen use for their youngest children, research indicates that the biggest conflicts and dilemmas arise when children are of primary school age. This is a period when children become more independent as they often receive their own digital devices from school, and many receive their first mobile phone and access to social media.

Almost all nine to eleven-year-old Norwegian children have their own mobile phone. At this age, many begin using social media daily and the vast majority play video games. As children mature into adolescence, they gradually develop self-regulation skills, along with increased responsibility and independence. However, it is still important to guide and support adolescents to ensure that screen use is balanced with sleep, schoolwork, physical activity, and spending time with friends and family.

Children and adolescents experience many joys and positive aspects of social media and digital games. These digital media play a crucial role in children’s and adolescents’ social lives and are important arenas for making and maintaining friendships. Social media can be a source of entertainment, information, and inspiration, as well as an arena for keeping in touch with family, friends and acquaintances. Video games have also become an important social arena. Although some develop problems, video games are mainly an important source of entertainment, mastery and community for children and adolescents.

However, there are also negative aspects associated with digital platforms. Scientific studies, as well as the Screen Use Committee’s conversations with children and adolecents, show that many feel that they spend more time on screens than they intended. Because social media is such an important social arena that is available 24 hours a day, it can be hard to disengage. In addition to the social aspect, this relates to the characteristics of the technology. Whether it is a mobile phone, a website, a video game or a social media platform, the interface, characteristics and design choices of the technology can influence the manner and extent of digital technology usage. Some of the characteristics of the platforms can be described as manipulative or addictive and may lead to spending more time or making different choices than intended.

Algorithms within the social media platforms make them relevant and interesting to those who use them. At the same time, the recommendation algorithms can have adverse consequences by exposing children and adolescents to increasingly more extreme content related to a specific topic. In video games, the use of money and gambling elements can become a problem for young users. For example, mobile games that are available everywhere and around the clock, often involve addictive features and reward systems designed to encourage prolonged use. The combination of individual vulnerability, manipulative game characteristics and inadequate supervision by parents and other adults increases the risk of adolescents developing problem gaming and video game addiction.

Most social media and video games offer parental control options that can ensure a safer user experience for children and adolescents, but only around half of Norwegian parents utilise these features. On social media, there are no effective age limits and existing restrictions can easily be bypassed . The content and functionality of the platforms have been inadequately regulated. Major legislative work has now been carried out in the EU to fill this legal void, and further efforts are underway both in the EU and nationally to impose stricter regulations on these platforms. The most significant measure at the EU level is the Digital Services Act (DSA), which imposes stricter requirements for the protection of children and risk assessment in proprietary platforms, and prohibits manipulative design. The DSA has not yet been implemented into Norwegian law. Work is also underway at the European level to enable effective and secure online verification of age, to better ensure that the age limits are followed to a greater extent.

20.2.2 Screen use in kindergartens and schools

Kindergarteners and pupils in schools have the right to a safe digital life. In kindergartens screen use is very limited, and when digital technology is used, it is usually as part of an activity and rarely as a relief for staff members. In line with the Framework Plan for Kindergartens, the Committee believes that digital tools in kindergartens should always be used together with staff members and with educational intent. In general, the use of digital technology in kindergartens is a matter of appropriate use. Kindergarten staff members should be free to make good educational choices about the use of digital technology in line with the instructions of the Framework Plan. However, research has not found evidence of positive aspects of screen use for the development of the youngest children, and we know that children learn best from experiences in interaction with caring adults. Therefore, the Screen Use Committee believes it is important to strictly limit screen use for children under two years of age, including in kindergartens.

In schools, the vast majority of pupils have access to their own digital devices for school use. Most schools use both digital and analogue teaching aids. In the course of the Committee’s work, it has become clear that there are major differences between the municipalities, both in how and to what extent digital technologies are used in schools, as well as the level of professional digital competence possessed by teachers in kindergartens and schools. The introduction of digital devices in schools also creates challenges for the cooperation between school and parents. Many parents find that they have little control over the devices their children bring home from school, and that it is difficult to follow up on their children’s schoolwork.

The effect of screen use on learning is a key aspect of the Committee’s mandate. There is no basis for claiming that a specific tool produces better learning outcomes. Nevertheless, the existing evidence base indicates that digital technology can provide teachers with new opportunities in their instruction. Digital technology also provides opportunities for differentiated instruction and special adaptation without the pupil feeling stigmatised. This potential is not always realised and not all pupils have a genuine opportunity to participate on equal terms. Some studies also find that pupils with their own digital devices work more alone.

The new curricula and the digital classroom impose significant demands on pupils, requiring them to take a more active role in their own learning. Pupils are no longer expected simply to read a chapter and complete the associated exercises. They must independently gather knowledge, navigate various teaching aids, sort the information, and present it in diverse ways that often combine digital, oral, written, and creative skills and forms of expression. It is challenging to engage in multiple activities on a screen simultaneously while continuously shifting focus. This is particularly challenging for younger children and may adversely impact concentration. Children and adolescents have also highlighted that screens can be challenging for concentration in their feedback to the Committee. It is important that teachers are aware of the high cognitive demands placed on pupils in today’s schools and that the characteristics of digital interfaces may adversely impact concentration and learning.

The Committee believes that the recent public debate on screens in schools has been both necessary and sound. The fact that teachers and pupils are now more accustomed to and confident in the use of digital technologies is a good starting point for a more purposeful, educational, didactic, and critical use that strikes a good balance between digital and analogue teaching aids in schools.

Many factors determine pupils’ learning, and most important is the role of the teacher. The Committee has great confidence in teachers’ and school leaders’ judgements when balancing the use of digital technology in schools. Teachers’ methodological freedom should still be a fundamental principle in Norwegian schools. Teachers know their pupils best and are the most qualified to choose how the instruction should be organised. Therefore, it is important to support teachers in schools and kindergartens and enable them to make good, knowledge-based choices.

20.2.3 Main challenges

Our comprehensive evidens base is strong in some areas and weaker in others. The Committee finds that the biggest challenges related to screen use among children and adolescents are as follows:

Screen use can disrupt sleep

Sleeping well is an important prerequisite for learning and good mental and physical health. For young children, sleep is essential for normal development. Screen use in the evening and at night is associated with bedtime delay and poorer quality of sleep for children and adolescents. Children and adolescents have clearly expressed that they find it difficult to put away their mobile phones in the evening. Many adolescents also experience peer pressure to be available at all times, which may affect their sleep.

Social media characteristics may contribute to poorer mental health

There is a link between social media use and negative body image and symptoms of eating disorders. Social media can be characterised as a high-risk environment that reinforces the possibility of comparison and the impression that certain idealised body images are more attractive than others. The characteristics of social media can contribute to spending more time than one wants, amplify social comparison and experiences of stress, increase the risk of being exposed to harmful content, and increase the severity and extent of bullying.

We need more and better studies to gain a deeper understanding of the correlations, but there are indications that use of social media may be one of several possible relevant factors in understanding the rise in mental health issues among adolescents. There is likely considerable individual variation in the extent to which adolescents are influenced by social media. For example, studies show that the correlation between time spent on social media and mental health issues is more pronounced among girls during the transition to puberty. It is also possible that adolescents from families with lower socio-economic status are more exposed to the adverse effects of social media, though further research is required to better understand this dynamic.

Screen use can disrupt children’s and adolescents’ concentration and learning

Pupils should experience a varied school day, where digital technology plays an important role. Digital technology used for educational purposes can support learning and motivation, provide opportunities to differentiate instruction to the pupil’s academic level and include more pupils in the instruction. Nonetheless, digital technology has some characteristics that can adversely impact pupils’ learning and motivation. An abundance of information in the form of audio, imagery, video and text can distract pupils, especially the youngest ones. It is also cognitively challenging to stay focused when shifting between tabs, and scrolling can make it difficult to orient oneself and gain an overview.

Children and adolescents are less capable of handling the disruptive and addictive nature of digital technology as their cognitive skills are not yet fully developed. The children and adolescents with whom the Committee has spoken mention, in particular, challenges with their ability to concentrate and that it is difficult to put the screen away. The evidence base shows that it is challenging for children and adolescents to make choices where they have to consider longer-term consequences. Doing multiple activities on a screen at the same time, and constantly shifting focus, is particularly challenging for children and adolescents. In addition, media multitasking can interfere with learning. It is also more demanding to read longer and more complex texts on screen than on paper.

20.3 The Committee’s assessments

Among other things, children and adolescents need enough sleep, physical activity, time for relaxation and social interaction in order to live healthy and safe lives and develop normally. The use of technology must also take account of the fact that children and adolescents are not fully cognitively developed. Although all children and adolescents are affected differently by the digital technology in their lives, there are some aspects of screen use that we are concerned about, and these can be understood in context:

A teenager who is already experiencing difficulties, and who is having trouble sleeping, scrolls on her mobile phone in bed. She is unable to put it down and does not get the sleep she needs. She might arrive at school tired. She is easily distracted, and the digital devices provide a quick escape to activities unrelated to her tasks. Perhaps she feels somewhat excluded in the class, both academically and socially. At the same time, social media is there all the time to show her others who are more popular, prettier and more successful than her. Algorithms can lead her down rabbit holes that, instead of helping her, convince her that something is wrong with her.

Let us imagine a different scenario: The same teenager puts her mobile phone away at bedtime. She lies in bed with thoughts swirling around in her head, and she feels that she has no one to talk to about her painful thoughts. Perhaps she stays home the next day but manages to send a few messages and receives support from friends. Through social media, she finds others who are experiencing similar difficulties. Not all of the content she finds is helpful, but the algorithms are designed to show a variety of sources and content on different topics. They do not lead her down a rabbit hole of more extreme content. Instead, perhaps they elevate content from trusted sources. Some of the content she encounters thus provides her with information about good quality and safe healthcare, as well as other support resources.

This is an attempt to illustrate that it is not necessarily the technology per se that causes the problems, but rather that the technology can have characteristics that can facilitate and amplify inherent problems. To gain a comprehensive overview of how the screen serves as a social arena in the lives of children and adolescents, we need to take seriously the many positive aspects of social media and video games. Adolescents do not spend time on these platforms merely because they are manipulated by technology companies or because of peer pressure. However, we must address the negative aspects of screen use to ensure that the positive aspects of utilising digital technology and participating in digital spaces are not lost.

20.3.1 The Committee’s recommendations

We must all take responsibility to help ensure that children’s and adolescents’ screen use is balanced, safe and healthy. The Committee wants to give responsibility and knowledge to the entire team around the child, as well as to children and adolescents themselves. Therefore, we make the following recommendations:

The authorities must help ensure that digital platforms are safe to use, both at home and at school. The authorities must therefore establish frameworks for effectively supervising and holding accountable the digital platforms and the companies that own them. There is currently no evidence to suggest that the authorities should decide how many hours of screen time children and adolescents should spend, nor at which age they should be allowed to use social media.

The platforms must provide safer and better services. They should set age limits for their services based on content and functionality, and adapt their services according to age. To achieve this, international cooperation is crucial. Efforts to implement the Digital Services Act into Norwegian law must be accelerated, and Norway should engage in relevant EU efforts.

All adults, especially parents, need to be more involved in the digital aspects of children's and adolescents' lives. They must request and be receptive to knowledge so that they can regulate children’s screen use, guide adolescents and be good role models.

Schools and kindergartens must adapt screen use according to age, maturity, and educational purpose. Teachers in kindergartens and schools must continue to be responsible for choosing what is best for their kindergarteners and pupils. The authorities and school owners are responsible for ensuring that teachers in schools have sufficient financial and practical opportunities to choose between digital and analogue teaching aids.

The entire team around the child needs a digital competence boost. The authorities, school owners and kindergarten owners must ensure that all staff members in kindergartens and schools have sufficient professional digital competence. Schools and kindergartens must also improve communication with parents regarding digital choices. We encourage schools to help ensure that parents have sufficient digital competence to monitor their children’s digital school life.

Children and adolescents must be provided with the opportunities to develop the digital competence they need, along with genuine opportunities for participation and involvement, while also receiving the necessary protection and support on digital platforms. According to maturity and age, and on age-appropriate platforms, children and adolescents should be given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own screen use. They should also contribute to developing screen rules at home, in the classroom and among friends.

Last but not least: None of this is possible without knowledge. We need more research, and more nuanced research, on children and adolescents’ use of digital media. Knowledge should be communicated effectively, and the authorities should provide consistent advice to the population. Technological development is advancing rapidly—and increasingly faster. Digital technology also permeates society at large, and technological changes can have an enormous impact at both the societal and individual levels. Therefore, structured, comprehensive, and continuous efforts are required to address issues related to the digitalisation of society.

Our recommendations to authorities, kindergartens and schools are as follows:

Age-appropriate and safe social media and video games

• The Committee urges the authorities to prioritise the implementation of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) into Norwegian law, emphasising the importance of protecting children and adolescents from harmful content and design, as well as ensuring effective enforcement in the follow-up of the legislation.

• Norwegian authorities should incite international and effective regulation of the addictive characteristics of social media and gambling elements in video games.

• The Committee does not support a government-imposed age limit for all social media. Platforms should set age limits for their services, based on an assessment of the content and functionality of the service. The authorities should effectively monitor compliance with age limits and age-appropriate services, with the possibility of penalties for non-compliance.

• The default settings of the platforms should be set to the highest safety level, and parental control settings should be easily accessible and easy to comprehend.

• The Committee supports the Government’s efforts to investigate how to ensure safe and genuine age verification on the platforms. Ensuring that the rights of children and adolescents are safeguarded is key to this endeavour. Children's rights to privacy, participation, and protection must be balanced.

• The platforms need to be more transparent and share data with authorities and researchers. This is important in order to gain more knowledge of how the characteristics of the platforms actually function and their implications for users. This is particularly important for services that are also used by children and adolescents.

Balance and safe digital environments in kindergartens and schools

Recommendations to the authorities

• The Committee supports the measures in the Government’s Strategy for digital competence and infrastructure in kindergartens and schools. The strategy should be followed up as quickly as possible and sufficient resources should be allocated to follow up the action points.

• The Government should consider whether the current level of the total grant for teaching aids in schools is sufficient to offer pupils a varied education and teachers genuine methodological freedom to choose between analogue and digital teaching aids.

• The Committee supports the Government’s reading strategy Sammen om lesing [Together for Reading]and measures to enhance reading instruction in schools, to strengthen school libraries and to strike a better balance between screens and printed books in schools. The Committee also supports the initiative to establish a new grant scheme to help increase cooperation between kindergartens and public libraries so that kindergarteners have better access to printed books.

Recommendations for schools, kindergartens, and their owners

• Ensure a good balance between digital technologies and printed books in schools and kindergartens. Printed books are particularly important when pupils are required to engage with substantial amounts of text.

• Set aside sufficient time to read longer continuous texts in schools and for reading aloud in kindergartens.

• Minimise digital distractions during school hours and help pupils regulate screen use.

• Avoid screen use during meals.

• Consider the pupils’ ergonomics when using digital devices and tools, such as posture, screen size and access to keyboard and mouse.

• Take responsibility for guiding parents in the use of digital solutions that pupils use in their schoolwork.

• Ensure that digital devices have parental controls if the youngest pupils will be taking them home.

• Staff members in schools and kindergartens should be aware that their own screen use can interfere with play and learning, and that they should limit the use of mobile phones and other digital devices when they interact with the children.

Better digital competence

Recommendations to the authorities

• There should be a requirement teacher students to develop professional digital competence in all teacher training programmes. Teacher training programmes should emphasise professional digital competence rather than the use of specific digital tools.

• A framework for professional digital competence in kindergartens should be developed.

• Norway should continue to participate in international studies that measure digital skills.

• The Committee supports the Government’s intention to evaluate the framework for digital skills as basic skills in the curriculum, to clarify what should be included in pupils’ digital competence education.

• The authorities should provide consistent guidance on children, adolescents and screen use, directed at various groups. The Committee supports the work of the DigiUng collaboration and the Government’s investment in ung.no and foreldrehverdag.no.

Recommendations for schools, kindergartens, and their owners

• Establish common routines and strategies for developing pupils’ basic digital competence, ensuring that these are in place early in their schooling.

• Work to ensure that staff members in kindergartens and schools strengthen their professional digital competence.

• Include all staff members—not just teachers—when making plans for digital competence development.

• Help to ensure that parents of pupils have sufficient digital competence to monitor their children’s digital school day and that parents of kindergarteners are informed about the kindergarten’s digital practices.

Nuanced knowledge and comprehensive policy development

• The Committee recommends that measures involving major changes to regulation or frameworks for children’s and adolescents’ screen use, such as mobile phone restrictions in schools, be subject to scientific evaluation.

• There is a need for continuous and nuanced research on screen use and children and adolescents. There is a particular need for:

  • more and better studies with different designs that can elucidate and demonstrate causal relationships;

  • studies of interventions and measures aimed at children and adolescents;

  • relevant research that is informed by children’s and adolescents’ perspectives (user involvement);

  • knowledge of how digital technology is incorporated into educational and didactic contexts in schools and kindergartens, rather than investigating the potential of the technology;

  • more interdisciplinary research that makes it possible to measure how activities with different materials and technologies support children’s development and needs;

  • more quantitative research with designs that make it possible to draw conclusions on the effect of different modalities and interfaces (print and digital) on different aspects of learning, such as concentration and endurance;

  • interdisciplinary and multimethod research on the correlations between learning and the use of different types of teaching aids, both analogue and digital, over a longer period of time;

  • knowledge of how different printed and digital teaching aids have changed over time; and

  • knowledge of educational opportunities and challenges related to artificial intelligence, and the significance thereof for children’s and adolescents’ skills (including writing skills).

• The Committee supports the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training’s research programme on digitalisation in kindergartens and schools.

• The Committee supports the Norwegian Media Authority’s pilot project aimed at exploring how analyses of algorithm-driven platforms can be conducted to gain better insight into the types of content children and adolescents are exposed to on social media.

• The Committee recommends that the Government investigate whether a permanent structure should be established that monitors technology development, maps research, evaluates measures and guides the authorities and the population in the use of technology.

20.3.2 The Committee’s advice on screen use in different age groups

Based on the comprehensive evidence base, the Committee has prepared advice that can contribute to balanced, safe and healthy screen use. What this means in practice will vary throughout childhood and adolescence and the Committee has therefore prepared specific advice on screen use in different age groups.

The Screen Use Committee’s advice mainly relates to screen use that does not take place in an educational context. The advice is mainly aimed at parents and other adults who can help ensure that children’s and adolescents’ screen use is balanced, safe and healthy. The advice may also be relevant to teachers in schools and kindergartens and other educational staff members, in which case this is specified.

Advice on screen use for children under the age of two

• Screen use is unlikely to be positive for a child’s development during the first two years of life and should therefore be strictly limited.

• Adults should limit their own screen use when interacting with children and reduce notifications on their own devices.

• Televisions and other large screens should not be left on in the background where small children are present.

Advice on screen use for children ages two to five

• Screen use needs to be balanced with activities that promote development and learning, and must not be at the expense of sleep, meals, play, physical activity and socialising with other children and adults.

• Screen use should not constiute a significant part of children's waking leisure time. What children see and do on screens should be appropriate for their age and stage of development and should preferably take place in the company of adults.

• All adults should limit their own screen use when they are around children and reduce notifications on their own devices. Televisions and other large screens should not be left on in the background where small children are present.

• Children should avoid using screens before bedtime, and they should not have access to digital devices when they are going to sleep.

• Avoid screens during meals at home, at kindergarten, in school, and the out-of-school-hours care.

Advice on screen use for children ages 6 to 12

• Screen use must be part of a day that allows enough time for sleep, meals, play, schoolwork, physical activity and socialising with friends and family.

• There should be screen-free zones in children’s lives both at school and at home, for example related to sleep, meals and shared activities.

• Parents, school staff members and other adults should help children achieve a good balance between screen use and other activities.

• Parents should be involved in and aware of what their children are doing and who they interact with on digital platforms. What children see and do on screens should be appropriate for their age and stage of development.

• Parents should use parental control settings and reduce notifications on the devices their children use. Age limits for digital services and video games should generally be observed.

• Parental cooperation organised by the school or the Parents’ Working Committee should be used to prepare common rules for screen use during leisure time and to establish ‘smart screen time rules’ for online behaviour.

• Parents should be involved in their child’s digital school life and familiarise themselves with their digital school devices and digital learning resources.

• Children should avoid using screens before bedtime and should not have access to digital devices when they are going to sleep.

• Adults should be good role models and should, among other things, limit their own screen use when they interact with children.

• Parents should include their children in creating family house rules for screen use and explain to them why balance is important in everyday life.

• Children should be supported in concentrating on a single task and using only one screen at a time. This also applies at school. Reading longer texts is best done on paper and screens should be put away when children are focusing on a longer text.

• Screen use during meals at home, at school and at the out-of-school-hours care (SFO) should be avoided.

Advice on screen use for adolescents ages 13 to 19

• Screen use needs to be part of a well-balanced life, with sufficient time for sleep, meals, schoolwork, physical activity, and time spent with friends and family.

• There should be screen-free zones in teens lives both at school and at home, for example related to sleep, meals and shared activities.

• Adults should be good role models and ensure that teenagers develop good screen use habits in the family, with friends and at school.

• Adults should provide support and contribute to teenagers gaining the knowledge they need to regulate their own screen use.

• Parents should include their teens in creating family house rules for screen use and explain to them why balance is important in everyday life.

• The age limits for apps and services should be observed. Adults should guide teenagers so that their screen time activities are appropriate for their age and stage of development.

• Parents and other adults should be involved in and talk to teens about what they do on digital platforms. Parental control settings should be enabled for the youngest teenagers and these settings should reduce notifications on everyone’s devices.

• Parents and other adults should be good role models and contribute to knowledge about online behaviour.

• Parents should be involved in their teenager’s digital school life and familiarise themselves with their digital school devices and digital learning resources.

• Parents, school staff members and other adults should guide teens to engage with only one screen activity at a time when they need to concentrate. Reading longer texts is best done on paper and screens should be put away when adolescents are focusing on a longer text.

• Parental cooperation organised by the school or the Parents’ Working Committee should be used to establish ‘smart screen time rules’ for online behaviour.

20.3.3 Advice on screen use to children and adolescents

Advice to those between the ages of 6 and 12:

• Engage in a variety of activities during the day. Remember that you need to use your body, get enough sleep, eat, and do things together with your friends and family.

• If you are going to use a screen, remember to take breaks. Give your eyes a rest and stretch your body.

• Tablets, mobile phones, and TVs can be fun and entertaining, but screens can also be designed to keep you engaged, making it difficult to stop. Get help from your parents to adjust the settings to prevent you from spending more time than you intended.

• Participate in creating the family house rules for screen use.

• Talk to your parents about what you are doing on the screen, and tell adults about it if you see or experience something that frightens you or that you find unpleasant.

• Follow the age limits on apps and games.

• During screen time, try to stick to one thing—and one screen—at a time. This makes it easier to focus and reduces fatigue.

• Do not eat in front of the screen. It is better to talk to the people around you and without a screen it is easier to concentrate on your food and recognise when you are full.

• Read on paper and put the screens away when you need to concentrate on longer reading.

• Avoid screens right before bedtime. Screens can make it harder to fall asleep and can reduce the quality of sleep.

Advice to those between the ages of 13 and 19:

• Screen use needs to be part of a well-balanced life, with enough sleep, time with friends and family and physical activity.

• When using a screen – remember to take breaks. Give your eyes a rest and stretch your body.

• Reduce notifications, follow the age limits, and use the security settings in the apps and games you use.

• Keep in mind that algorithm-driven platforms and apps can influence what you do, what you see and how you feel. You can change your settings to influence what content you are exposed to, and you can unfollow profiles that affects you negatively.

• Tell an adult if you experience something frightening or unpleasant online.

• Make sure to have screen-free zones in everyday life both at school and at home, for example, related to sleep, meals and shared activities with friends or family.

• Participate in creating family house rules for screen use.

• Talk to your friends and classmates about common rules and expectations, such as not messaging each other after a certain time or not expecting an immediate reply.

• If you are going to learn something properly, such as practising for a test, it is a good idea to put away your mobile phone or other screens while studying. Studying while using screens takes longer and you learn less.

• Read on paper and put screens away when you need to concentrate on reading a longer text.

• Be proactive in strengthening your digital skills and digital literacy. Make use of public online resources such as ung.no and dubestemmer.no.

• Avoid using screens before bedtime. Preferably, your mobile phone and other screens should not be accessible when you are going to sleep. However, if you need to keep your mobile phone nearby, be sure to turn off notifications.