When does screen time become harmful for adolescents? Three experts break down the research. Many parents are concerned about how much time their children spend on cellphones, Xboxes and other digital media. Some experts say they should be: There is a growing body of research showing an association between unhappiness and the time adolescents spend on digital media.What is less clear is whether screen time is causing mental-health problems or if children with worse mental health spend more time with digital media.To assess the research, we went to Jean Twenge, author of the book iGen: Why Todays Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happyand Completely Unprepared for Adulthoodand What That Means for the Rest of Us; Michael Rich, founder and director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School; and Cara Booker, research fellow and acting graduate director at the University of Essex in the U.K., who has studied the effects of social-media use on children and adolescents.

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