Screen Time Policy Misses The Mark: AEC Calls For Deeper Research And Support For Parents, Not Quick Fixes

The Aotearoa Educators Collective (AEC) is responding to National's announcement this week that a re-elected National Government would end screen and individual-device use in early childhood education (ECE) and tightly restrict it in the early years of primary school.

AEC agrees that the foundations of early learning development through play matter deeply: physical development including fine and gross motor skills; oral language and sensory integration; socio-emotional literacies and early cognitive skills are essential to children's development, literacy, and long-term wellbeing. Any policy that puts genuine weight behind these foundations is welcome.

However, AEC is concerned that this announcement reaches for a simple, headline-grabbing fix to a problem that is far more complex than the policy suggests - and lands, tellingly, in the middle of an election campaign.

Screens are already rare in ECE

Individual device use in early childhood centres is already extremely uncommon in Aotearoa New Zealand. Most ECE services have little to no screen use as part of their everyday practice. A policy to "end" something that is barely present risks being a solution in search of a problem, while distracting from where the real influence on young children's screen exposure lies: the home.

The real opportunity is with parents

Children's heaviest and earliest exposure to screens happens well before they walk through an ECE or school door, in the family home, often from infancy. If the Government is serious about protecting children from the harms of excessive screen time, the highest-impact investment is in resourcing and educating parents and whānau - helping them understand why early, unsupervised device use can be so harmful to developing brains, and supporting them with practical, accessible alternatives.

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Legislating against a practice that barely exists in ECE settings, while leaving this much larger and more influential context unaddressed, will do little to shift outcomes for children.

Technoference

It is essential that policy-makers look carefully at what exactly it is that negatively impacts the developing brain. It is likely that screens in children's own hands do not pose the greatest early risk, but the concern is the diversion of parental attention away from the responsive, in-person interactions infants and young children need to wire their brains for regulation, language, learning and connection.

When parents and caregivers spend excessive time on devices, particularly phones and social media, the developing brains of infants and young children can be significantly affected - not because of the technology itself, but because of what it displaces: the parent's attuned presence. A young child’s brain requires repetitive, relational experiences to build healthy neural architecture; co-regulation from a calm, attuned adult is the foundation from which children eventually learn to self-regulate. Paediatrician Dr Jenny Radesky has termed this phenomenon "technoference," documenting how parental device use during caregiving moments correlates with reduced verbal and nonverbal engagement with infants - engagement that is critical for oral language development and, later, literacy.

Neuroscience educator Kathryn Berkett is currently studying this phenomena, at Kings College London and warns: “Research is showing that parents ignoring their children whilst on a screen, 'technoference', can negatively impact physical brain development. These early impacts can influence development throughout the life span. “

Show us the evidence

AEC supports a strong focus on the building blocks of learning and development. What is far less clear is how well informed this specific National party proposal is, what evidence base it draws on, and how it was arrived at. Announcing restrictions on ECE screen use, without a clearly articulated evidence base or accompanying investment in the areas known to matter most, raises real questions about whether this is considered policy or a pre-election announcement designed to sound decisive.

A call for depth, not speed

Children's development, learning, and mental health deserve better than quick, easy-sounding announcements. These are complex, interconnected issues that require genuine research, sector engagement, and analysis - not slogans timed to an election cycle. AEC calls on all political parties to commit to working with the early learning and education sector, drawing on neuroscience and developmental evidence, to design solutions that will have a meaningful and lasting positive impact on New Zealand's children.

About Aotearoa Educators Collective

Aotearoa Educators Collective is an umbrella collective created to support education thought leaders who share a common interest in promoting progressive ideals in schooling. The group includes academics, principals and teachers and is not aligned to any political party.

These leaders choose to contribute to mainstream public debate through mainstream media based on their research, their lived professional experience and their standing within the sector.

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