Stop Playing Video Games

Trading screen time for real play

Chris Brandlin on children, video games, and why he argues for shifting time from screens toward physical play.

The evidence base here is more moderate than the title suggests. What research fairly supports is that displacement matters: hours that crowd out sleep, movement, and in-person contact are associated with worse outcomes, while moderate play alongside those things is not. The useful variable is what the screen replaces, not the screen itself.

Framed that way it is also a school-day argument rather than only a parenting one, and it is the same case as the physical-education proposal — the state controls how much of a child's day involves movement, whatever happens at home.

Related: bringing real PE back to schools, the children's health agenda, and the youth fitness challenge.

More at education reform and parental rights.