Evaluating screen exposure in very young children: insights from the Italian Surveillance System of children aged 0-2 years.

Objective: To describe screen exposure and its association with socio-economic characteristics in a large representative sample of children aged 0-2 years in Italy.

Materials and methods: Data from the 2022 Italian Surveillance of children aged 0-2 years, collected on 35,550 mothers, were analysed to estimate the prevalence of screen exposure. Logistic regression was used to investigate the association between exposure and potential predictors.

Results: Overall, 39.2% of children aged 2-15 months were exposed to digital screens. The exposure prevalence increased with age, ranging from 13.9% at 2-3 months to 61.9% at 13-15 months. Screen exposure was significantly more frequent among children of mothers with non-Italian citizenship, having lower levels of education, reporting economic difficulties, non-participating in antenatal classes (ACs), and residing in the center-south.

Conclusions: Most babies, particularly from low socio-economic status (SES) families, were exposed to screens in a period when this may interfere with responsive caregiving and thus with early child development. It is imperative to inform parents and caregivers about the risks of early exposure since the first months of life.