Surgeon General Issues Advisory on Screen Time
May 26, 2026
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Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a new advisory on children鈥檚 screen use. The HHS report is technically an advisory that makes recommendations, but stops short of having legal impact. is a toolkit intended to guide decision making and has a focus on specific aspects of excessive/unstructured screen time, especially social media, entertainment content, and cellphone use. Some top level take-aways:
- While it is being covered as a report from the Surgeon General, it is important to note that there is no confirmed Surgeon General. While the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) joined the office in cohosting a screen time listening session last fall, NTIA is notably absent as a co-author on this advisory.
- The advisory raises concerns about links between excessive screen time and student health and academic outcomes, including attention, learning efficiency, and time spent on schoolwork. The document itself acknowledges important limitations in the research base, including mixed findings and gaps in the evidence, as well as the role that factors like age, content, and context play in shaping outcomes.
- For schools, the advisory includes several notable recommendations鈥攕uch as bell-to-bell cellphone restrictions, increased use of paper-based materials, expanded digital literacy instruction, and limiting individually assigned devices outside of computer lab settings. It also appropriately recognizes exceptions for students who rely on technology for learning, accessibility, or health needs.
- These recommendations are inclusive of parents, educators, policymakers and companies. This is a good thing, in that parents are often excluded in documents like these when it comes to roles and responsibilities in supporting student/child access and management of screentime.
- While E-Rate is not specifically mentioned in the document, we will monitor the extent to which the advisory itself is used as a foundation for Congress/the administration to take further prescriptive action (think: tying receipt of E-Rate dollars to adoption of screen time requirements). 91制片 has historically opposed any such effort; E-Rate itself is a program about connectivity; it should not be tied to other outcomes (education or health).
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