Children's Media Research and Reform Lab
LATEST NEWS
2026 TEDx - SCREEN TIME FOR CHILDREN UNDER 2: FIXING A BROKEN SYSTEM
2026 PARENTS AS TEACHERS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE KEYNOTE
SCREEN SMART FROM THE START
EVIDENCE BASED GUIDANCE
CMRRL bridges the gap between developmental science and digital literacy to ensure our children’s first digital experiences meet the same standards of care, intention, and safety as every other pillar of early childhood development.
POLICY AND INDUSTRY REFORM
Parents are caught between impossible guidelines and a regulatory void that has emboldened a billion-dollar industry to target them with no guardrails. We are fixing this broken system from the inside out.
"As a new father, I assumed two decades inside the very industry shaping children's media would help me cut through all the noise. Instead, I found an endless scroll of advice that led to fear, anxiety, and confusion. And when I turned to the experts — I was told to abstain, and felt shamed."
Will Maurer, Executive Director, CMRRL
ARE SCREEN TIME POLICIES DOING MORE HARM THAN GOOD?
Nearly all global health organizations advise: 'No Screens Before 2.'
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While we agree that screens should be avoided for as long as possible, we cannot ignore the data:
4 months
Average age screen time typically begins
~1 hour
Daily viewing time by 6 months of age
75%+
Watching television before their first birthday
90%+
Watching television before age two
– The concern: this is happening long before developing brains can process what they’re seeing.
– 80% of brain development occurs in the first three years.
– These experiences shape the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health.
This is not a parenting failure.
This is a systemic failure.
Children's media is increasingly being engineered to capture and hold attention by overloading the cognitive and sensory pathways. This creates a level of dependency that is difficult to break.
Parents and pediatricians rarely have the digital literacy training to recognize these overstimulating design elements, much less the tools to care for a child who has become dysregulated and dependent on them.
Closing the digital literacy gap to help families avoid the screen time trap.
CMRRL has identified a critical gap in research, funding, and trusted public media options for children under 2.
Reform Starts Here
Current screen time policies are not only ineffective, they have created a knowledge and regulatory gap, and have blocked support and funding for broader research and safer solutions.
This has enabled profit-driven producers and platforms to fill this void with developmentally harmful programming, while targeting parents with deceptive marketing claims – without any accountability or consequences.
This is creating immeasurable downstream consequences for a child’s development and societal outcomes.
WE ARE CLOSING THIS GAP THROUGH THREE CORE OBJECTIVES
Pioneering Research
Conducting pilot studies and developmental analysis to quantify how digital design impacts cognitive load and sensory processing. Our work aims to move the conversation from theory to evidence.
Digital Literacy
Translating developmental science and industry expertise into evidence-based tools for parents, educators, and practitioners to ensure their digital literacy meets the same standards as every other aspect of parenting.
Media Reform
Utilizing novel research and industry expertise to develop age-appropriate developmentally aligned programming for children under 3, designed to prioritize attuned co-viewing and human connection.
CMRRL PROGRAMS
SCREEN TIME INGREDIENTS
A structured coding framework that identifies and classifies the specific production and sensory elements within children’s media. By analyzing dozens of variables, this taxonomy enables the systematic content analysis required for both academic research and industry assessment.
SCREEN TIME QUALITY INDEX
The STQI provides an evaluation rubric to assess the quality of a program by measuring the effects of the 'ingredients' on sensory load, cognitive alignment, and relational affordances, such as co-viewing support and resources.
SCREEN TIME NUTRITION LABEL
A standardized disclosure format that translates complex STQI data into a clear, public-facing summary. Much like a food nutrition label, it empowers parents to make informed, data-based decisions about their children's media choices.
EARLY YEARS MEDIA (EYM)
CMRRL has identified a critical gap in trusted nonprofit public media options for children ages 2 and under. EYM provides developmentally-aligned content for young children ,and attuned co-viewing resources for their caregivers - free from advertising, algorithms, auto-play, and techniques that are design to capture attention.