Screen time: 20 common signs your child's phone use or online gaming is becoming a problem

• The amount of time children spend in front of a screen has shot up in the last few years alone
• Many apps and online games alike are designed to keep their users engaged, making it hard to disconnect
• An expert says red flags that a child’s screen time is becoming an issue include secretly staying up late to use devices, grades dropping, and not wanting to spend time with friends in-person

Phones are everywhere these days, and we pretty much all use them constantly - from chatting with friends and family, to working, to killing time with games or social media.

Many of our favourite apps are addictive by design, offering a near-seamless experience to keep you on that platform for longer. These can often play on very human things like rewards, dopamine hits, or feelings of connection, experts recently told the Guardian, which are hard for adults to resist - let alone young people, who are still learning how to self-regulate and engage with a digital world.

A report published in 2024 by Parliament’s Education Committee found that young people’s screen time has shot up in recent years, with a whopping 52% between 2020 and 2022. One in four children with a smartphone used it in a way that was consistent with behavioural addiction, it continued.

Brad Marshall, an expert on healthy tech habits and author of ‘How to Say No to Your Phone: An Empowering Guide for Young People’, worked with the UK’s only newspaper specifically for young people - First News - to create a guide to help parents make sure their kids have a healthy relationship with their devices.

As well as covering how to tell whether your child or teen’s tech use was becoming an issue, he also included some handy hints for cutting back on screen time at night - as well as some important discussion points for parents and children when it comes to screen time. Here’s what he had to say:

How to tell if you need to rein in your child’s screen time

Mr Marshall told First News about 20 common red flags that he saw, which suggested that a child or teen’s online gaming, phone or other technology use were veering into problem territory.

1. Withdrawing from team sports or refusing to participate outright - which may be a sign a child is prioritizing screen time over physical activity
2. Avoiding family gatherings
3. Pulling out of old friend circles, without forming new ones
4. For older teens, shunning weekend outings altogether
5. Not spending time with friends face-to-face during school holidays
6. Turning down invites from friends to hang out or spend time together in person
7. Grades or school performance suddenly dropping
8. Panicking at bedtime over assignments or homework that haven’t been finished
9. Consistently failing to complete homework or assessments on time (teachers will often bring this to parents’ attention)
10. Frequent absenteeism from school - or refusing to go altogether in serious cases
11. Not wanting to follow household rules
12. Heightened verbal aggression or increased swearing at home
13. Destructive behaviour, such as breaking things
14. Any form of physical aggression
15. More frequent - or prolonged - emotional outbursts
16. Staying up late or getting up early to go online, especially if they try to keep it a secret
17. Late-night gaming sessions, or pulling all-nighters
18. Skipping extracurricular activities they previously enjoyed to spend more time on screens
19. Refusing to eat meals or shower because they’re using devices
20. Reluctance to leave bed

However, he did warn that some of these things can just be typical teenage behaviour, such as wanting to sleep in, or pushing back against household rules. Likewise, others - such as more frequent emotional outbursts - could also be indicative of other issues in their lives. These may not mean that your child’s phone use or screen time is veering into the realms of obsession or addiction just yet - so it’s important to consider them in context.

This article is produced in partnership with First News, an award-winning newspaper for UK children read by 2.2 million each week. To find out more about getting First News at home or in your child’s school, or even to browse its other online offerings for young people, you can visit its website here.