An Alabama House committee Wednesday passed a bill that would implement screen time limits for children under the age of five in licensed child care facilities.
HB 78, sponsored by Rep. Jeana Ross, R-Guntersville, would require licensed child-care facilities, public kindergarten classrooms and specific Pre-K classrooms to implement training and guidelines on screen time created by the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education (ADECE).
Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, said during the House Education Policy Committee meeting she was glad the bill is being brought up.
“Rep. [Barbara Drummond, D-Mobile,] and I serve on a Women’s Commission that had a study done the year before last on the danger of not only children using screen time, but of their parents using screen time instead of looking at the children and talking and singing. And so I think this is very important,” she said.
Under the Alabama Administrative Code, children under two in child care facilities are prohibited from screen usage while children over two are limited to 30 minutes per day for children in half-day programs and less than an hour for children in licensed child care facilities.
Ross’ bill would expand the limitations to 90 minutes per day for children ages two through four and prohibit individual screen usage. The bill would also require local boards of education to set guidelines for appropriate screen usage in kindergarten classes.
Jaime McKinney, a pediatrician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Medicine and Children’s of Alabama, said in December that research shows that “excessive” screen time can have negative effects on children.
“Kids who have early exposure to screen time, have speech deficits, have some problems with attention, whether that’s inattentiveness, trouble focusing, even some aggression in anger concerns,” she said. “There’s been issues in regards to sleep, whether that’s a child’s ability to wind down, or their ability to even sleep when there’s a screen present or like a TV in the room given the blue light.”
Under the bill, guidelines for proper screen usage would be created by ADECE in collaboration with the Department of Human Resources (DHR) and the Alabama State Department of Education. All three agencies would also create training required for certain teachers and staff.
No members of the committee spoke against the bill.
The bill moves to the full Alabama House.
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