Why kids are so much more vulnerable to screens than adults (and how to support them starting now)

We all know screens aren’t great for kids, but when you look at the actual data on how children’s brains and eyes respond to modern devices… it’s much worse than most parents & grandparents realize.

And yet:

Kids have to use screens now. Schools issue Chromebooks in kindergarten, homework is online, messaging is digital. By 2021, 84% of U.S. districts were providing a device for every elementary student.

So this article is not “throw every device in the trash and move off-grid.” ....This is a realistic - solution oriented article that will explore:

• Why kids are biologically more vulnerable to screens
• The “shock” data you won’t see in school tech brochures
• Free, realistic things you can start today - even if your kid already has an iPad and a school Chromebook
• And how to think about safer tech going forward (including what Tristan Scott and I are building toward with ​Daylight Kids​)

Before I share: Practitioners: Get ​MyCircadianApp ​memberships in bulk for your clients, and start implementing Circadian Biology into your protocols for better results! ​Click here​ & Grab My Practitioner Program on Early Black Friday for a very limited time - ​Click here​ 

 ​Holiday Gift Guide (​NEW ITEMS ADDED AS OF TODAY!)

 

First - if you like listening more than reading - ​click here to watch the podcast I did this week on this topic!​ And there are some FREE & easy action steps you can take immediately in this article as well.

1. Why kids are so much more vulnerable than adults

One of the biggest things that parents & grandparents are never taught is that - kids don’t just use screens differently. They physically experience light and stimulation differently.

A few key differences:

Their eyes let in more blue light

A child’s eye lens is clearer and less yellow than an adult’s. That means:

• More blue light reaches the retina in children than adults, because their developing lens absorbs less short-wavelength light. (​reference​)
• One clinical article notes children can absorb​ ~45% more “toxic”​ blue light through the retina than adults over 25, and they tend to hold devices closer → even higher effective dose.

Blue light from the sun is packaged with red/infrared and comes from the whole sky, but blue from a screen is concentrated, high contrast, and inches from a child’s face.

Now layer this with what we know about melatonin:

• Blue light at night suppresses melatonin and disrupts circadian rhythms.
• Melatonin isn’t just a “sleep hormone” - it’s deeply involved in DNA repair, mitochondrial function, immune balance, and hormone signaling.

When a 5-year-old is bathed in blue light from an iPad at bedtime, they’re getting more retinal blue light for their body size than you scrolling Instagram in bed.

Their brains are wired for dopamine seeking:

Kids’ brains are still wiring and myelinating, and they are supposed to:

• Chase novelty
• Explore their environment
• Get dopamine hits from real-world experiences (climbing, mud, friends, problem-solving)

But now? The “environment” they’re mapping isn’t the backyard. It’s a handheld rectangle.

The biology (extra blue light → more dopamine drive) that used to push them to explore the real world is now being hijacked by:

• Infinite scrolling
• Quick-cut cartoons
• Auto-played short-form videos

Which leads straight into…

2. The data that should make all of us pause

No one needs another vague “screens are bad” meme. So here’s what the research is actually showing:

Early screen time → measurable developmental delays

Recent large studies have found:

• More screen time at age 1 was associated with developmental delays in communication and problem-solving at ages 2 and 4, especially when daily screen time was 4+ hours. (​reference​)
• High mobile device use (≥1 hour/day) in early childhood is linked to poorer language development and higher odds of both receptive and expressive language difficulties. (​reference​)
• Pediatricians are now seeing enough evidence to warn that increased screen time in toddlers correlates with speech delays and problem-solving delays. (​reference​)

This fits what so many teachers (including my sister, a second-grade teacher) are reporting:

Kids are showing up to school less verbal, less socially fluent, and more dysregulated than previous generations.

The mental health “hockey stick” after 2010

 ​Jonathan Haidt​ and others have documented that around 2010-2013, as smartphones and social media became universal for teens:

• Rates of anxiety and depression in adolescents surged, roughly doubling in many high-income countries. (​reference​)

That doesn’t prove “phones cause depression,” but the timing is hard to ignore-especially when you realize:

• 2010 is also when smartphones became affordable and ubiquitous
• LEDs replaced more of our ​incandescent lighting​ (more blue, less red)
• Sleep duration, outdoor play, and unstructured social time started to collapse for kids and teens

School has quietly become a screen environment

During COVID, schools moved online, but many never fully moved back.

• By March 2021, 90% of districts reported providing a device for every middle/high school student, and 84% did the same for elementary students. (​reference​)
• Many districts now have 1:1 Chromebook programs from kindergarten on.

Teachers know the kids aren’t okay. They see:

• Social skills deficits
• Difficulty making eye contact
• Kids more engaged with screens than with peers
• More kids on IEPs or special education support than ever before

And yet the tech is baked in: homework portals, reading apps, testing platforms… even math on YouTube in kindergarten.

So when parents say, “I’ll just keep my kid off screens,” they’re now fighting against school infrastructure.

3. The impossible position parents & grandparents are in

A few truths I want you to hear clearly:

• You’re not crazy for feeling uneasy about devices.
• You can’t fully opt out if your child is in a modern school system.
• You can still dramatically change the impact screens have on your child’s brain, eyes, sleep, and hormones- without going off-grid.

Think of this as environmental triage:

1. Support their biology outside of screens
2. Change how and when they use screens
3. Where possible, change what kind of screens they use

Let’s go step by step- and I’ll keep it focused on free things you can start today.

4. Free things you can do starting today

1. Anchor their brain in real light first

Kids are getting slammed with device light before they ever see the sun.

Free shift:

On the porch, walking the dog, waiting for the bus, eating breakfast by an open window (car windows count as well) if you can’t fully go out.

• This clears melatonin
• Anchors cortisol and dopamine for the day
• Protects against circadian disruption from screens later
• Preconditions eyes and skin with red and infrared light

(If you have my app ​MyCircadianApp,​ this is literally what it’s built to help you do - ​click here​ to watch my free webinar that dives deeper into all of this)

2. Protect the evening:

•  ​Click here ​for my article on how I keep my house circadian friendly for my kids who refuse to wear blue blockers
• Get outside for sunrise & sunset if you can (​MyCircadianApp​ will tell you when this is)
• No bright overhead lights 2–3 hours before bed. Use lamps, string lights, salt lamps, or low-level bulbs instead.
• Turn brightness way down
• Turn their ipads or phone screens red using color filters
• Blue blockers (RA Optics & VivaRays both have kids glasses)
• Aim for no stimulating screens in the last 60–90 minutes before sleep, especially for under-10s.

The goal: let melatonin rise. That’s when your child’s brain and mitochondria get their nightly repair window.

3. Create “screen containers,” not free-for-all access

Instead of “no screens” vs “screens all day,” use containers:

• Bedrooms
• At the table during meals
• “You can watch a show between 4–4:30 while I cook dinner.”
• “You can use the tablet on Saturdays from 10 - 11 after we go outside.”

Kids do best when they know when something begins and ends. So do their nervous systems.

4. Co-view and slow it down (especially for littles)

For kids under 5:

• Prioritize slower-paced, longer-form content over quick-cut shorts.
• Talking about what they see
• Pausing to ask questions
• Keeping it social, not just hypnotic

Remember: AAP still recommends very limited screen time under age 2, and about 1 hour/day of high-quality programming for ages 2-5, ideally with a caregiver.

5. Increase distance from the device

Simple physics: The closer the device, the higher the light intensity and the stronger any EMF exposure.

Free tweaks:

• Teach “arms-length rule”: the screen stays at least an arm’s length from their face whenever possible.
• For TV, sit further back, not 2 feet from the screen.
• Avoid phones right up against their head for long calls- use speaker or a wired headset when practical.

6. Turn things off when you’re not using them

Even if you’re not ready to hardwire your house:

• Turn on airplane mode when kids are watching downloaded content or using offline apps.
• Turn Wi-Fi off at night if you can.
• Keep baby monitors, routers, and charging phones away from beds, not right next to a sleeping child’s head.

The EMF science is still evolving, but we know kids absorb more radiofrequency energy per kilogram of tissue than adults because of their smaller heads and developing tissues. A precautionary approach is reasonable, especially when the fix is literally a toggle.

5. When you do need screens: better (and worse) choices:

This is where my ​conversation with Tristan Scott ​and the work he’s doing with Daylight really matters.

We talked about a few big realities:

• Kids are now being issued Chromebooks in kindergarten/1st grade, often using them daily.
• Teachers know the kids are struggling socially and emotionally, but the tech is deeply embedded.
• Many parents can’t homeschool or choose niche schools with no devices

So we asked: if kids must use devices, can we at least make healthier ones?

1. What “healthier tech” actually means

On the ​podcast​, we walked through what Tristan’s team built:

• A paper-like, low-stimulation display (closer to a Kindle than an iPad)
• Custom blue-light–free, flicker-free backlight
• Monochrome, slower-by-design interface (less Las Vegas, more notebook)
• Limited number of apps
• No ads, no trackers, no social media
• Ability to use it outside (huge) so kids can be in real sunlight while doing homework or reading

For younger kids, that means:

• A device they can learn on
• Without the hyper-stimulating color/brightness that jacks up dopamine
• And without the wild west of open internet + autoplay + algorithmic feedsf you want to go deeper into that, the​ full episode with Tristan​ is where we really unpack the tech, the biology, and the education angle.

(If you decide to try the ​Daylight Kids device​, you can use code SarahKleiner to save $75 through Black Friday)

The goal is not to raise a child who has never seen a device.The goal is to raise a child who:

• Has a nervous system anchored in real light, nature, and human connection
• Knows how to use technology as a tool, not a nervous-system pacifier
• Can feel and trust their own internal signals (tired, overstimulated, anxious) instead of being numb to them

Screens aren’t going away. & shool-issued devices aren’t going away., butwe are not powerless.

You can start today by picking one of these:

• Morning outdoor time before screens
• Dim, warm lighting and no stimulating screens for 90 minutes before bed
• Making bedrooms and family meals screen-free zones
• Turning devices on airplane mode whenever your child is using downloaded content
• Teaching the “arms-length” rule for all handheld screens

Then layer in better tools like the ​Daylight Kids Tablet ​- when and if you can.

Our kids absolutely have an uphill battle, but the more we align their environment with their biology- even inside a tech-saturated world- the more of their curiosity, resilience, and true sensitivity we preserve.

And that, in my opinion, is worth fighting for.

Please forward this article to your favorite teacher - caregiver - parent - grandparent or anyone you know who works in changing school policies for our kids at any level!  (I have to ask, because you never know the power of sharing this type of information & I still have great hope for our kids!)

 

 ​NEW ARTICLE: How to avoid wearing blue blockers in the evening​ 

 ​NEW ARTICLE - My Sleep Deprivation Protocol ​ 

 ​FREE WEBINAR ON CIRCADIAN HEALTH - CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE REPLAY​ 

Please feel free to forward this to a friend or family member!

Enjoy my work & want to support me? (No pressure as this newsletter will remain free) Leave me a tip!

Reading this on the web or forwarded from a a friend? ​Click here to subscribe ​so you don't miss free informative content in the future.

Enjoy my work & want to support me? (No pressure as this newsletter will remain free) Leave me a tip!

$5.00 Sarah's tip jar Enjoy my work and want to support me? Leave me a tip! Thank you so much for your consideration ❤️ Send a tip

 

In Health🌞,

Sarah