BACKGROUND:The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented move to emergency remote learning around the world, leading to increased digital screen time for children and adolescents. This review highlights the potential risk of increased screen time to the eye and general health and makes recommendations to mitigate the risks posed.
METHODS:A narrative review of evidence of increased digital time during the COVID-19 pandemic, the risks linked to increased screen time and offer possible steps to mitigate these in students.
RESULTS:Digital screen time was found to have increased for children and adolescents in all the studies examined during the pandemic and data suggests that this has an impact on eye and general health. We discuss the associated risk factors and adverse outcomes associated with increased digital screen time.
CONCLUSIONS:This review offers evidence of increased digital time, highlights some of the well-known and not so well-known risks linked to increased screen time, and offers possible steps to mitigate these in children and adolescents during the pandemic, as well as offering schools and parents strategies to support the eye health of children and adolescents post-pandemic. We discuss a number of interventions to reduce the risk of eye strain, myopia, obesity, and related diseases that have been shown to be linked to increased digital screen time.
Digital footprints, which are the records left online through the use of social media such as Twitter and Instagram, are a growing concern for the future employability of undergraduates. This case study explores research the co-creation of a workshop about digital footprints with undergraduates on a Primary Education Studies degree in an English university to protect professional identities. The workshop included a range of activities to help undergraduates learn about the importance of digital footprints, how to check their own digital footprints, explore steps to protect their digital identities on different social networks, and how to curate a positive digital identity. It is argued here that undergraduates need more opportunities to learn about digital footprints.
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