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Media and Young Minds

Nov 2016 🇺🇸 American Academy of Pediatrics Ages 0–5 PEER-REVIEWED PAYWALLED — LINKED, NOT HOSTED

Media and Young Minds is a policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Communications and Media, with Jenny Radesky as lead author, reviewing research on how infants, toddlers, and preschoolers (ages 0–5) engage with television and mobile/interactive technology. The statement notes that evidence for educational benefit in this age group is limited outside of high-quality, co-viewed programming, and associates heavy or solo early-childhood media use with displacement of sleep, active play, and face-to-face interaction that support development. It does not claim media use causes developmental harm on its own, and instead recommends pediatricians counsel families toward shared, limited, age-appropriate use. The statement became a widely cited reference point for pediatric guidance on screens in early childhood and helped establish Radesky's role shaping AAP media policy.

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CITATION

Radesky, Jenny S., Dimitri A. Christakis, et al. (AAP Council on Communications and Media). "Media and Young Minds." Pediatrics 138, no. 5 (November 2016): e20162591. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2591

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