Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents: Technical Report

The digital ecosystem now comprises immersive technologies, including but not limited to the internet, algorithms, artificial intelligence, social media, apps, video games, TV, interactive agents, tablets, wearable technology, and mobile devices. In recent decades, research on digital media has more closely aligned with the varied ways that families use digital media. The traditional notion of “screen time” therefore represents just the tip of the iceberg of families’ experiences with devices. Beneath the visible surface lies a vast structure of policy, community, and economic incentives that deeply shape children’s interactions with technology. This technical report reviews the evidence that situates children’s health and well-being in the conceptual framework of Bronfenbrenner’s socioecological model and the concentric systems that shape children’s relationships with digital media. These systems include children’s own characteristics, their caregivers (eg, parents), digital ecosystem, and systems and structures (eg, policy, community) that deeply shape their experiences. Given the outsized influences of digital ecosystems on children’s experiences, “media and children” cannot be examined in isolation or reduced to individual screen behaviors alone. Instead, it must be viewed through the broader context of these nested influences, with a review of the evidence primarily from the United States.