This post is part of Back-to-School Week at the Center for Economic Opportunity. Each day, we feature commentary and analysis on affordability and other issues for families preparing for the new school year.

Back-to-school season brings the usual mix of excitement—and, of course, shopping lists: new notebooks, new backpacks, new clothes, etc., and, often, pressure to buy the latest laptop, tablet, or “smart” learning device. 

Many parents are stuck. On the one hand, they want their children to be on top of the latest technology, especially in an economy where technology is king. On the other hand, they see headline after headline about the issues with screen time and want to make sure their children can retain their attention spans and socialize rather than staring at screens all day. 

They’re not worried for no reason. Per the CDC, children today are spending more and more time on screens, with more than half of teenagers spending upwards of 4 hours on screens. While some screen use can be educational and pro-social, excessive or poorly managed exposure carries real downsides.

The Impact of Screens

A widely cited 2019 meta-analysis looked at 58 studies examining the relationship between screen time and academic performance. It found that television and video games in excess of two hours a day are most strongly associated with poor academic performance. At the same time, the study didn’t find strong evidence that internet browsing or mobile phone use necessarily lowered academic performance. This could imply, as more recent studies suggest, that the type of screen time matters: purely recreational screen-time in excess is probably bad for academics, but educational screen time is more mixed.

Still, as the 2026 Surgeon General advisory on screen use noted, upon conducting a review of the research available, despite the fact that existing studies “have identified positive, negative, mixed, or no effects … when taking all the evidence together there is sufficient evidence of potential harms, suggesting we as a nation should take concrete steps to reduce them. Our children do not have the luxury of waiting until research is exhaustive and completely encompassing.”

Some studies are already showing serious harms. A 2025 systematic review of 153 studies on digital media use among children and adolescents found that “poorer developmental outcomes were associated with digital media use in children and adolescents. Social media use was associated with higher depression, behavioral problems, self-injury, and substance use, and lower self-perception and academic achievement; video gaming was linked to greater aggression and externalizing behavior, but modestly higher attention and executive functioning.”

Taken together, the evidence suggests that some amount of screen time isn’t the end of the world, especially when that screen time is going toward academic purposes, but too much can be actively harmful for kids—academically, socially, and psychologically.

What About Educational Screen Time?

Even educational screen time isn’t necessarily good for academics, as evidence from around the world and in the United States shows. The Poverty Action Lab at MIT, in a review that looked at 126 studies, found that K-12 outcomes in developed countries don’t meaningfully improve with expanded internet and computer access, although computer proficiency does. Even developing countries don’t seem to get better academic outcomes for more technology. A 2020 study from UCLA found that a one-laptop-per-child policy in Uruguay didn’t increase academic performance—nor did it even push kids to pursue STEM careers. Ditto for a similar policy in Peru, per a 2026 study from the Cato Institute.  

Beyond that, looking at the U.S. specifically, student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has stagnated or declined in recent years in both math and reading, even as technology access in schools has expanded dramatically in the same time frame. Concerningly, these declines have started right around when screens were introduced in schools, per an article this year from The Economist titled, “Ed tech is profitable. It is also mostly useless.”

Schools Are Starting to Hit the Brakes

At least 28 states as of 2025 advanced or adopted phone-free classroom or school policies aimed at improving focus and mental health. These policies range from requiring devices to stay in lockers or backpacks during the day to full restrictions during instructional time.

One of the most striking examples is the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school district in the nation. Earlier this year, the district approved new screen-time limits for the 2026–27 school year, including:

  • A complete ban on screens through first grade;
  • Discouraging one-to-one devices for students from second through fifth grade;
  • 20 minutes of screen time max for second and third grade;
  • 30 minutes of screen time max for fourth and fifth grade;
  • 60 minutes of screen time max for sixth through eighth grade;
  • 90 minutes of screen time max for ninth through twelfth grade.

It’s not just in America either: In 2023, the Swedish government decided to bring back the basics and invest in physical textbooks, after having been some of the earliest adopters of education technology and seen declining test scores. Linda Fälth, an education researcher in Sweden, told a science and tech magazine that the country had gone through “a broader cultural reassessment … Sweden had positioned itself as a frontrunner in digital education, but over time concerns emerged about screen time, distraction, reduced deep reading, and the erosion of foundational skills such as sustained attention and handwriting.” 

In other words, technology may have progressed rapidly, but has no bearing on children’s developmental needs. 

As a North Carolina district superintendent told The Economist, “The pendulum has swung toward devices determining the assignment rather than the other way around.”

Takeaways

The good news is that you don’t have to be a total Luddite—some amount of screen time for children is perfectly fine, so long as there are real guardrails.

  • Ask questions at your child’s school. What specific learning goals does this device serve? How much actual instructional time will involve screens versus other methods? Are there opt-out options?
  • Prioritize proven foundations at home. Time set aside for reading, handwriting practice, focused study time without distractions, and real-world experiences (e.g., museums) develop educational foundations that transfer far better than endless screen time. 
  • Set family boundaries. Delay unnecessary screen exposure where possible, create device-free zones and times, and monitor overall usage. The limits Los Angeles is implementing grade by grade might be a good starting point.