The NSW Government is continuing its work to address the harms posed to young people by excessive screen time, with research grants awarded to academics investigating how this unprecedented exposure to technology and social media affects children’s development and learning.

Committed to prior to the election, nine recipients have secured grants through the $2.5 million Screen Use and Addiction Research Fund. Their work will produce a new body of knowledge which will be used to inform stronger government policies to better protect children from adverse impacts.

The Fund has enabled new research, including for mental health data and NAPLAN results to be analysed alongside screen use data from the Black Dog Institute’s study of 5500 NSW adolescents. The Fund will also contribute to an ongoing longitudinal study looking at the effects of recreational screen use on high school students.

This research will help develop a NSW first database of knowledge on how screen use can affect young people and students.

This is part of the NSW Government’s ongoing work to address harms posed to young people by screen use and social media, with work already undertaken including:

• Banning mobile phones in all NSW public schools
• Co-hosting a world-leading social media summit to discuss the harms of social media on young people
• Introducing an updated syllabus which includes explicit lessons for students about online safety and responsibility
• Recruiting 250 additional school counsellors in NSW public schools

Successful recipients received grants of up to $500,000 for new or novel research projects, and up to $200,000 for research projects already underway. Grants were also awarded to three PhD candidates, with all recipients are required to deliver findings by 2026.

Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said:

“Many parents are concerned about how smartphones and devices are affecting their children’s mental health and development.

“We still don’t know enough about how this new technology impacts our children. That is why we committed to establishing this fund – to build up a body of reliable facts and research for families.

“This research can be used to inform evidence-based policies that benefit students for years to come.”

Grant recipients

1. Effects of recreational screen use on the mental and physical health of Australian high school students: When does screen use become problematic, who is at most risk and why?

(Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales, Australian Catholic University, University of Queensland, Flinders University). Leverage existing longitudinal adolescent wellbeing data, learning outcomes and school-level data with a novel measurement of screen use, to causally identify relationships between digital device use, wellbeing and academic outcomes.

• Lead researcher: Associate Professor Aliza Werner-Seidler

2. Best practice in screen use for education: Empowering students, teachers and school communities for digital learning

(Macquarie University, University of Wollongong, Charles Sturt University, University of New South Wales, University of Technology Sydney, Australian Catholic University, University of Newcastle, University of Sydney, University of New England, Southern Cross University). A collaboration between all NSW universities to explore how screens impact learning from K-12 and determine current practices and perceptions of screen use for intervention and policy setting.

• Lead researcher: Professor Matt Bower

3. The impact of excessive screen time on students’ academic achievement, cognitive functioning and mental health: A ten-year longitudinal study

(Australian National University). Statistical modelling of data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children to explore the impacts of screen use outside school hours on primary and secondary school students.

• Lead researcher: Professor Ben Edwards

4. Seeing the bigger picture: Exploring children’s screen time and outcomes through collaborative data analysis

(Australian Catholic University, La Trobe University, University of Queensland, Black Dog Institute, University of NSW, Curtin University, University of Wollongong). Using meta-analyses to understand the effects of screen use, develop practical evidence summaries for effective and safe classroom screen use, and inform policy to enhance student wellbeing and education outcomes.

• Lead researcher: Dr Taren Sanders

5. Screen time, sleep, and development in typically developing preschoolers and those with, or at risk of, autism

(University of Newcastle, Monash University, University of the Sunshine Coast, University of South Australia, University of Sussex). Investigate preschoolers’ screentime relationships with sleep, cognition, language, behaviour and wellbeing, pinpointing differences among those with and without autism.

6. Identifying the links between video game play and wellbeing; developing resources for problematic play prevention among secondary students

(University of Wollongong, Queensland University of Technology, University of Queensland, University of Victoria, Canada). Unpack the causal impacts of key risk factors on problematic play and internet gaming disorder among 14–16-year-olds to create educational materials for schools.

PHD scholarships

7. Madeleine Gale (University of Newcastle):

Assess the relationship between screen time, sleep, and language development in children aged 3 to 5 years. Screen time duration and content (entertaining and educational), time of day of engagement (morning, midday, and night) and interactive behaviours (interaction with the screen or another person) will be measured. Assessed together, all these variables will provide insight into how screen time relates to sleep and language outcomes.

8. Samantha Playford (University of Newcastle):

Examine the difference in language development between autistic children and typically developing children aged 3-5 years, while considering the relationships with screen time and sleep. By examining the duration of exposure to screens, content type, sleep behaviours and carer perceptions, this research will identify potential correlations between screen time, sleep and language development. By including a comparison between autistic children and typically developing children, the research will provide insight into how screen time relates to language development differently.

9. William Tregea (University of Wollongong):

Conduct formative research to inform a future intervention promoting healthy and reducing problematic screen use among young children from southern-western Sydney’s four culturally and linguistically diverse local government areas that experienced the strictest COVID-19 lockdowns in NSW. The Healthy Bytes project aims to understand the prevalence and place of screen use in young children (3-5 years) and their families’ lives in SWS, to co-design an intervention to promote healthy screen use among this diverse population. The project is in partnership with NSW Health’s SWS Local Health District.