Travel and Screen Time

Question: We are traveling internationally in a few weeks. Up to this point, we have not allowed virtually any screen time. Is it a bad idea to introduce screen time as a busy time activity for an 8-hour plane ride?”

Answer: It can be difficult to figure out how to handle long periods of time spent in cars, planes, or trains with your family, especially for parents of a toddler.  

There’s no research suggesting that using media to occupy children on long car, bus, train or plane rides causes any harm. (In contrast, using media to frequently calm down toddler’s emotions when they are upset has been linked with worse emotional problems over time). As you introduce screen time to your child during this plane ride, resources such as  Common Sense Media are helpful in selecting high-quality, age-appropriate content for your child to watch. Something to keep in mind is that children’s screen usage may crowd out time for parent-child interactions, reading, play, and sleep. However, there’s not much to crowd out on a flight! Your child would otherwise be sitting, snacking, or napping. Think of screens as a parenting resource on a long flight – an 8-hour journey with a young child is hard work! 

Here are a few things you can try when on a plane with young kids (suggestions will also work for those traveling by train or car!): 

• The goal of screen use on a long journey isn’t to distract the child from the whole experience. A plane trip is a big deal to a toddler! Let them participate in parts of the journey like: looking at the airplane before you board, carrying a small bag or their stuffed animal, letting them hand their ticket to the agent, and saying hi to the flight attendants and pilots. 
• Once they have settled in their seat, show them the options of different things to do on the flight. 
• If you are bringing a tablet, pre-load a few toddler-targeted programs that are age-appropriate and interesting. Common Sense Media has good reviews to help you find these.  
• If you are using the in-flight system, look through the options with your child and make a plan for what they will watch. 
• At times, watch along and talk about what they are seeing on the screen. This can include identifying and labeling familiar terms, talking about what the characters are doing, and what happened in the story. (If your child is just ‘zoned out’ looking at the screen, that’s ok too! You should relax and read or watch your own movie). 
• Then, when your child needs to transition away from the screen – for example to use the bathroom or have a snack, tell them it’s time for a break, and pause the screen. (Note: it’s always easier to pause and take a break after an episode, not in the middle of one!) 

A word about transitioning from screen time to other activities: 

Research has found that children do better transitioning from screen time to screen-free time when they are presented with a variety of offline options like reading, coloring, playing a game, and solving puzzles. In other research, children who were viewing videos on autoplay also had more transition difficulties, so you may want to turn off the autoplay before a transition point. 

Ideas for non-media activities on the flight:  

• Penguin Random House offers ideas to keep children occupied during long bouts of travel: books, audiobooks, I Spy, toys (e.g. small picture books, finger puppets, stickers, magnetic games and puzzles, crayons and coloring books, cards – (none of these will run out of battery power!) stuffed animals or blankets to increase comfort during sleep time). 
• HealthyChildren.org provides answers to commonly asked questions about flying with an infant as well as tips for a smoother and safer flight (e.g. car seat guidelines, safe sleep practices, noise exposure reduction). Bringing distractions is recommended: pack toys and books to be able to play with the toddler the entire time.  

For more information about screentime, we recommend viewing these previous portal responses and Center resources: 

• Screen Time Limits for Young Children – This previous portal response shares further information on setting time limits for young children. 
• Health Effects of Young Kids Being on Screens Too Long – This previous portal response provides a summary of the links between long amounts of time on screens and specific health outcomes. 
• Watching YouTube Videos to Relax – This previous portal response shares information with parents on using alternatives methods to calm emotions rather than YouTube or other forms of technology. 
• 5 Cs of Media Use – This series of age-based handouts shares information about your child’s developmental stages, how this influences media use, and healthy media habits to strive for at home. 

Age: 0-17 

Topics: Screen use during travel, occupying children with screen time, screen time transitions, introducing screen time 

Role: Parent