Concerning Data on Screen Time Among Children in Cyprus

The Cyprus Health and Environment Observatory for Children ChildrenFirst highlights the increasing screen time among young children. According to the Observatory's data, daily screen use for recreational purposes reaches two hours.

Children aged 6-7 years spend approximately 1.5 hours a day using screens for videos, TV shows, and platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Screen time for electronic games reaches 45 minutes on weekdays and 1.5 hours on weekends. These times are close to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, which recommends less than two hours daily for children aged 5-13.

Various countries are taking measures to limit this phenomenon. France requires parental consent to create social media accounts for children under 15 and has restricted mobile phone use in schools. The Netherlands has banned mobile phones for non-educational purposes, while Italy has banned them completely. In Australia, the ban on social media use by adolescents under 16 has not been fully effective, as one-fifth of teenagers continue to use them.

According to the ban, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat must block users under 16, or face fines of up to $35 million.

See the report by Nasia Ioannou.