Kara Alaimo is a professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University and advises parents, students and teachers on how to manage screen time. Her book “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — And How We Can Take It Back” was published in 2024.
The Los Angeles Unified Board of Education has enacted some of the strictest rules in the country limiting screen use in schools.
Many families across the United States will soon be sending our kids back to school, where they will likely spend far too much time on devices. The new policies in Los Angeles show that a more sensible approach is possible. To get schools to adopt similar safeguards, parents need to make their voices heard and push for change.
Under the policy approved June 23, kids in preschool and first grade within the nation’s second-largest school district won’t have instructional screen time at all. In second and third grade, kids will spend a maximum of 20 minutes on screens each day, including homework. That will gradually increase to a limit of 1.5 hours per day in high school — and no more than 10 hours per week.
No one will be on YouTube or social media during the school day, and individual devices won’t be issued to kids anymore.
