Experts warn of escalating mental health and privacy risks as children’s screen time surges during holidays

Child psychologists and cybersecurity experts highlight the growing concerns over prolonged device use during school holidays, emphasising impacts on mental health, social development, and online safety, and urging balanced habits and parental guidance.

Children on school holiday are spending more time than ever on phones, tablets and gaming devices, and experts say the issue is no longer only about wasted hours. According to child and adolescent psychologist Winnie Naomi Ndungu, long stretches online can alter how children respond to boredom, frustration and reward, particularly when short-form clips and social feeds keep delivering rapid bursts of stimulation.

Ndungu says the problem often begins when screens crowd out sleep, exercise, chores and time with other people. She warns that children who become dependent on constant digital input may show irritability, restlessness or emotional flatness when devices are removed, while parents may mistake those reactions for simple defiance. She also says the effect can reach learning and concentration, as fast-moving content conditions young brains to expect constant novelty, making reading, homework and slower conversation feel dull by comparison. Research published in recent years has drawn similar links between heavy screen use and anxiety, depression, conduct problems and weaker sleep and activity patterns, while the U.S. Surgeon General has warned that excessive screen exposure can harm children’s mental and educational development.

The concerns extend beyond mood and attention. Ndungu says social media can make children measure their worth through likes, comments and follower counts, creating a fragile sense of identity that rises and falls with online approval. Over time, she says, screens may start to replace human companionship altogether, limiting the practice children need to build patience, resilience and conflict-resolution skills. That can leave them less able to read facial expressions, sustain conversation or cope with disagreement in person. Cleveland Clinic has separately noted that while screen time is not the same thing as ADHD, excessive use can still affect attention and social development.

There is also a privacy risk that many families underestimate. Polycap Oliver Oluoch Ochieng, a cybersecurity expert and partner at Techrise, says children leave digital traces long before they understand the consequences. Photos, posts and profile updates can reveal names, schools, birthdays, neighbourhoods and routines, and apparently harmless details can be stitched together into a fuller profile for scams or identity theft. The Australian eSafety Commissioner has warned that sharing children’s images and personal information can create lasting privacy problems, while UNICEF has highlighted wider online dangers ranging from exploitation to misleading commercial practices. Ochieng says the rise of AI has made the threat more sophisticated, with deepfakes and synthetic voices now able to mimic trusted adults with alarming realism.

Neither expert argues for a blanket ban on technology. Instead, they recommend habits that make children safer and less reliant on devices. Ndungu says parents should avoid acting like enforcers and should instead talk regularly about what children are seeing online, agree household rules and model sensible device use themselves. Ochieng says cybersecurity begins at home, with conversation, supervision and critical thinking rather than software alone. Both recommend gradual screen-free periods, more offline activities and more face-to-face contact, because the aim is not to remove children from the digital world but to help them move through it with judgement, balance and protection.