Excessive screen time is creating stressed families and undermining teenagers' learning, with a ban on smartphones in classes for those under 14 one way to reverse the trend, a doctor and filmmaker says.
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American physician Dr Delaney Ruston, whose latest documentary Screenagers aired in Canberra on Saturday, warned about the educational, social and mental health dangers of the smartphone-dominated expansion of time using electronic devices.
Inspired by her own family's tension, Dr Ruston said teenagers needed to be helped with self-control and explained the science behind the addictive technology, as the average 12-18-year-old in the US now spent 6½ hours per day using an electronic device for entertainment alone.
"We were really stressed and arguing a lot about this, this idea every day that free time for them meant screen time, [and] research in the US shows that 30 per cent of families fight on a daily basis about technology," she said.
"We need them to understand how their effectiveness at learning decreases when their brain is pulled in many directions."
The problem is rife in Australia, with national research from 2010 finding three-quarters of secondary school students were exceeding the federal Department of Health's guidelines for children aged 5-17 years to not spend more than two hours per day using electronic media for entertainment.
ACT Health said surveys of Canberra secondary school students showed 74 per cent were exceeding the two hours guideline during the school week in 2014, but this was little changed from 2002. The separate Healthy Weight Initiative results from 2014 show 35 per cent of ACT children aged 5 to 15 exceeded screen time guidelines, an improvement from the 44 per cent in 2010-12.
In school, the Stanford University-trained doctor said a ban on smartphones in classes for those aged under 14 would help avoid the natural temptation to look or play under the table. After school, children need a direct substitute for screen time, such as sports, community service or engaging with extended family.
The filmmaker-in-residence at Alan Alda's Center for Communicating Science, Dr Ruston said teenagers needed to be involved in discussions as blanket device bans could encourage an extreme response, she said.
Dr Ruston said the almost universal embrace of smartphones meant the average age for a child's first device was now 10 years old, with the phone creating more of a 24 hours per day problem than TV.
Mobile phones are not banned in public school classrooms and an ACT Education directorate spokeswoman said personal devices were "powerful assets to enhance learning in the classroom" and actively embraced.
Students use their devices under the supervision of their teacher and were educated about necessary judgement on the benefits and consequences of digital technology across their school and social life, she said.
"The directorate does not believe banning mobile phones is a pragmatic or practical response to the widespread access to personal devices students have across their daily lives," she said.
University of Western Australia researchers said last year the two-hour guideline, based on the time set by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2001, "may no longer be tenable" as "both parents and schools are enthusiastically embracing the digital age".
