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
CMRRL'S MISSION
EDUCATION AND ADVOCACY
We bridge the gap between developmental science and digital literacy to equip parents, educators, practitioners, and policymakers with the tools required to ensure our children’s digital world meets the same standards of care and safety as their physical world.
RESEARCH AND SOLUTIONS
We synthesize complex data and novel research into actionable frameworks. This work is the catalyst for systemic reform, ensuring the digital landscape honors the developmental integrity of the child.
ARE SCREEN TIME POLICIES DOING MORE HARM THAN GOOD?
Nearly all global health organizations advise: 'No Screens Before 2.'
These rigid guidelines are often accompanied with vague and negligent guidance for parents of young children.
While we agree that screens should be avoided for as long as possible, we cannot ignore the data:
Screen time typically begins by 4 months of age
Average daily viewing time approaches one hour by 6 months
Over 75% of infants are watching television before their first birthday
Over 90% of children are watching screens by age two
"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 often lack the digital literacy skills to identify these overstimulating design elements, or the tools to care for a child who has become dysregulated and dependent on them.
"We are closing the digital literacy gap to help families avoid the screen time trap."
CMRRL has identified a critical gap in research, funding, and regulation of children's media.
Reform Starts Here
Current screen time policies are not only ineffective, they have also created a knowledge and regulatory gap that 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.
These rigid policies have also blocked support and funding for broader research and safer solutions.
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 self-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, caregivers, and clinicians to make informed, data-backed decisions about the media they bring into their homes.
EARLY YEARS MEDIA (EYM)
CMRRL has identified a critical gap in trusted nonprofit public media options for children ages 3 and under. EYM fills this gap by providing research-backed content for young children and their caregivers - free from advertising, algorithms, auto-play, techniques that are design to capture attention.