We should raise children to be tech-savvy – but also digitally healthy

In today’s interconnected world, technology is everywhere – at home, in schools and on playgrounds. That means for children growing up in the digital age, technology isn’t just a tool, it’s part of their daily lives from infancy. While this reality brings incredible opportunities for learning and connection, we can’t ignore the challenges it poses for parents trying to nurture their young children.

As highlighted by the Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority (ECA) during our Digital Well-being Symposium held last month in collaboration with New York University Abu Dhabi, it is crucial for parents to foster healthy digital habits within their families from an early age to ensure children's well-being online. As part of this, responsible technology use must start early, with the well-being of our youngest children front of mind.

Children born today are digital natives and will continue to benefit from incredible advances in technology as they grow up. By engaging with digital media in the right way they can enjoy its capability to support learning, language development, and social skills – and because of this most parents see technology as a positive force in their children’s lives. Indeed, the Digital Use Survey, whose findings we launched at the symposium, found that most parents (70 per cent) are satisfied with their young children’s screen time, especially when it is educational or culturally relevant.

But we can’t ignore the risks. There is, of course, another side to this story, with recent TV series and other forms of pop culture entertainment sparking a global conversation about the potentially devastating impact of social media on young people. This underscores a current knowledge gap in what constitutes the building blocks of healthy digital habits.

Through its World Early Childhood Development Movement, the ECA is focusing on spotlighting the needs and experiences of young children, from birth to the age of eight, in digital well-being conversations. We are doing this by trying to address gaps and myths that exist by conducting in-depth research and amplifying our findings regarding young children’s engagement with media. We want to ensure that the actual facts about today’s young children and their media use are incorporated into the crucial discussions from which this age group is often left out.

If we want children to develop healthy digital habits, we must first create the right framework to support responsible use of technology in early childhood. We can do this by encouraging and enabling conversations around, and even more importantly with, young children and their experiences with digital tools. We can develop the research to inform policies and strategies that put the well-being of our young citizens first, so they can grow up in a world that embraces the myriads of opportunities offered by technology.

There are also practical things we can be doing as parents and caregivers. For example, it may be necessary to moderate the duration to ensure they spend adequate time on other developmental activities such as exercise, offline play, school, books, time with friends and family and quality sleep. Or parents can engage in technology use with their young children. This is especially important in early childhood as it gives the opportunity to model appropriate online behaviours such as protecting personal information and show appropriate and fun ways to use technology and when to stop.

Technology is woven into the fabric of modern childhood, and that is not going to change. But how children use technology, and how it shapes their development, depends largely upon us as citizens and parents, as educators and innovators. We need to create evidence-based guidelines and frameworks related to digital media and AI, strategies for creating high-quality digital content that prioritise young children’s learning and development, as well as explore key requirements to help initiate the draft of a culturally informed ratings framework for digital media and technology.

By embracing further research into young children’s digital well-being, we’ll ensure we have the right framework to ensure children are engaging with the digital world safely, setting clear boundaries, choosing quality content and balancing digital with real-world activities, so we can raise children who are not just tech-savvy but digitally healthy.

The goal is to empower our children to use screens wisely, building a foundation for a balanced, happy and connected life in a digital world.