By Alana Wasserman

UW–Madison’s B. Bradford Brown was recently quoted in The Capital Times discussing a question many parents are asking: How much screen time is OK for kids?

Children are spending more time than ever on their devices and social media. The article spoke with three UW–Madison experts, including Brown, about the positive and negative effects of screen time and how parents can navigate its use.

Brown, a professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology, studies adolescent peer relationships and youth social media use. Since joining the UW–Madison faculty in 1979, he has become one of the nation’s leading authorities on adolescent peer relations, particularly the formation and functioning of adolescent peer groups.

“(Between ages) 3 to 8 … it really isn’t as much a question of quantity as quality, except that the more limited the screen time is, the more likely young people are to engage in more productive activities,” Brown told the Cap Times.

While he noted some positive effects such as helping young people with friends, he emphasized that social media can be harmful in many ways. “Individuals can really get trapped in ways that just are psychologically or physically unhealthy for themselves,” he said.

Read the full Cap Times article.