For children under the age of 2, daily screen time went from 1.32 hours in 1997 to 3.05 hours in 2014, with television accounting for over 2½ hours of screen time in 2014, compared to half an hour in 1997. For children ages 3 to 5, screen time averaged 2.47 hours in 1997 and did not change significantly by 2014, but TV also came to represent the majority of the screen time; going from just over an hour in 1997 to over two hours in 2014. The rise in the time spent in front of a TV comes despite a changing landscape of available electronic screens for kids…

Swanson, who was not involved in the study, worries about electronic readers and learning devices being in the same category as other screens.

“I want them to be thought of differently,” she said. “As I watch my own children interact with iPads, televisions and tablets versus an e-reader, I think they are different devices, and I don’t want them to be lumped together.”