April, 23 2019, 12:00am EDT

Screen-Free Week is April 29-May 5, 2019!
Kids, families, schools, and communities across the globe are taking a break from digital entertainment to enjoy life beyond the screen.
BOSTON, MA
Screen-Free Week is almost here! The annual, international celebration takes place in homes, schools, and communities around the world this April 29-May 5, 2019. Screen-Free Week is hosted by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), an advocacy organization dedicated to ending child-targeted marketing. Families, schools, libraries, cities, places of worship, nature centers, museums, and more will host events designed to help children turn off screens in order to connect with family, friends, nature, and their own creativity.
"Screen-Free Week is a breath of fresh air," said Josh Golin, CCFC's Executive Director. "Kids are surrounded by so much media all the time, and most of it is trying to sell them things or encourage them to act or think a certain way. By turning off entertainment screens for a week, kids and families can shut out that noise and rediscover what really feels good, whether that's going for a bike ride, playing outside, or just getting lost in a great conversation."
Reflecting the growing consensus that excessive screen time is displacing essential childhood activities like creative play, Screen-Free Week 2019 is endorsed by 113 prominent international organizations in the fields of public health, nature, and child advocacy, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Children & Nature Network, Center for Humane Technology, American Public Health Association, Sierra Club, Reach Out and Read, National WIC Association, American Horticultural Society, ZERO TO THREE, Children and Screens, Center for Digital Democracy, Childhood Obesity Foundation, Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition, Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, Association Montessori International/USA, and many more.
"Screen-Free Week challenges parents to take a one-week break from digital media and to be more thoughtful every day about the digital media choices that they make for their families," said Kyle Yasuda, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). "The AAP helps families by offering information and a tool so families can discover what is best about digital media, and how to minimize the distractions it can cause from real life. Parents need to make sure that digital media doesn't take children away from important activities like playing, studying, connecting with friends and family, or sleeping, and a good first step is to create a Family Media Plan."
For this year's celebration, CCFC has partnered with Every Child a Reader, the host of Children's Book Week, which is also taking place April 29-May 5. Children's Book Week is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, and is marking its centennial celebration with free readings and book-related events in libraries and bookstores across the country. CCFC and Every Child a Reader have created resources for hosting both weeks together, including joint reading pledge cards in English, Spanish, and French, and a list of children's books about unplugging from digital devices.
Since 1996, thousands of parents, teachers, PTA leaders, librarians, scout leaders, naturalists, and clergy have organized Screen-Free Week celebrations in their communities. This year, SFW organizers have planned nearly 350 public events. Here are just a few of this year's festivities:
- Screen-FREE Week Frederick, in Maryland, is kicking off its community-wide celebration with a joint Screen-Free Week and Children's Book Week book event, featuring Wall Street Journal columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon. The robust list of Screen-Free Week events can be found here. Frederick's Mayor Michael O'Connell will also be declaring April 29-May 5 as Screen-FREE Week Frederick!
- In Davis, California, residents will be treated to a full week of screen-free events, from knitting to singing to a community picnic and more.
- Nevada County, CA, is anticipating 3000 participants in its Screen-Free Week celebration.
- Brady Smith and actress Tiffani Thiessen will be launching their new children's book, You're Missing It!, during Screen-Free Week, with several book signings across the country. The book celebrates the joys of disengaging from our screens; but in a delightful twist, the children teach this lesson to the adults!
- Wadsworth Public Library in Wadsworth, Ohio, will be hosting daily screen-free activities for children, including several arts and crafts projects, with board games and puzzles for teens and adults.
- Students at Newmarket Elementary School in Newmarket, New Hampshire, will enjoy a Harlem Wizards basketball game, animal show, and family dance.
Research shows that there is good cause for encouraging children to take a break from entertainment screens for a week. Children's screen time exceeds public health recommendations, and that excessive use of digital devices can lead to health and wellness problems:
- School-age children spend more time with screen media - television, video games, computers, tablets and phones - than in any other activity but sleeping.
- Teenagers consume an average of nearly 9 hours of entertainment media daily, with tweens averaging nearly 6 hours - and these numbers don't include additional media use for school and homework.
- Children aged eight and younger average 2.25 hours of entertainment media daily, even though the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 18 months avoid screen media (except video-chatting) and that children aged 2-5 limit their screen exposure to 1 hour of high quality content daily.
- Excessive screen time is linked to a host of problems facing children today, including poor school performance, childhood obesity, sleep disturbance, depression, and attention problems.
Here's what endorsers of Screen-Free Week are saying about this year's celebration:
"Kids today get outdoors less than any generation in history. Too many of our children are missing out on the incredible benefits to social, mental and physical health that come along with spending time in nature. Kids face too many barriers when it comes to outdoor access, and screen time is making them far too content indoors. This Screen-Free Week, tell a kid you love to take a break from tweeting and get to know some real birds in their local park." - Jackie Ostfeld, Director, Sierra Club's Outdoors for All campaign
"Thank you, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, for Screen-Free Week. It is one of the best ways families can experience disconnecting from their screens and reconnecting with each other and the other things they care about in their lives. It's a time to step back and reflect on the role media and technology play in their lives, and what they gain and lose by using it. And, it is a time to make decisions about what they want to change about their screen use when the week is over and they turn their screens back on. TRUCE has been concerned about the impact of entertainment media on children and families for over 20 years and we urge parents to take advantage of this special opportunity to promote the well-being of their families." - Diane Levin, Co-Founder, TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Childhood Entertainment)
"The Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America is an enthusiastic supporter of Screen-Free Week. We know that children need to develop un-'mediated' relationships with the real world through exploration and creative play before engaging with the virtual world. We are grateful to CCFC for its leadership and for providing so many excellent resources to families and educators. Thank you!" Susan Howard, Coordinator, Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN)
"The Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring is happy to endorse Screen-Free Week and we are taking the next step! In collaboration with our local library we have coordinated a series of screen-free events for children and families on Salt Spring Island. Fun, evocative, and educational, these events are designed to consider screen time in a whole new way. The Covenant for Child Honouring and its 9 principles offers an organizing principle for societal change. Screen-Free Week is a wonderful way to demonstrate our mission." - Raffi Foundation for Child Honouring
"Screen-Free Week is a wonderful opportunity to unplug and enjoy time together with our family and friends. Wait Until 8th encourages parents and children to take a break from smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs to enjoy adventures outside, board games, long conversations, reading and some much needed down time. Let's all look up instead of down for the week to experience life unplugged." - Brooke Shannon, Founder, Wait Until 8th
"At New Dream, our goal is to question consumption -- including of online media -- and interrogate how it operates in our lives. Is our screen use helping our children? Is it improving our relationships? Is it creating addictive patterns? Is it interfering with our ability to do the things we genuinely enjoy and that truly contribute to our well-being? Screen-Free Week provides us with an opportunity to assess how our screen habits harm or help us, and make informed changes to our behaviors to improve our well-being." - New Dream
"Turning Life On is all about keeping tech in check! That's why we're proud to endorse Screen-Free Week as a wonderful opportunity for families to disconnect from technology and reconnect with each other. There are endless activities that can fill the screen-time void. Our hope is that families can discover these activities together during SFW and continue to engage in them year-round. We know it can be a challenge, but it's worth it!" - Turning Life On
"Parents Across America appreciates the opportunity Screen-Free Week offers families to fully enjoy quality time together -- and perhaps reconsider how much digital technology to invite into our homes. We also hope that it will help raise awareness of the rapid growth of in-school technology and encourage parents to challenge school districts and states to be more cautious, diligent, transparent and accountable about their technology decisions." - Parents Across America
Experts on children and media will be available for interviews prior to and during Screen-Free Week. Additional endorser quotes can be provided upon request, and images for promotional use can be found here.
Fairplay, formerly known as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, educates the public about commercialism's impact on kids' wellbeing and advocates for the end of child-targeted marketing. Fairplay organizes parents to hold corporations accountable for their marketing practices, advocates for policies to protect kids, and works with parents and professionals to reduce children's screen time.
LATEST NEWS
Senate Tosses 'Dangerous Provision' Preventing State-Level AI Regulation From GOP Megabill
"From the start, this provision had Big Tech's money and lobbyists all over it. This is a major victory for the American people over the AI industry," said one advocate.
Jul 01, 2025
With a 99-1 vote early Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Senate decided to remove a controversial provision that would have prevented state-level regulation on artificial intelligence for 10 years from U.S. President Donald Trump's massive tax and spending bill that is currently being debated in Congress.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) was the lone lawmaker who voted to keep the moratorium in the bill.
While far from the only controversial part of the reconciliation package, the provision drew opposition from an ideologically diverse group that included Democratic and Republican state attorneys general; over 140 groups working to support children's online safety, consumer protections, and responsible innovation; and faith leaders.
Senators struck Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) AI measure from the megabill by adopting an amendment introduced by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). They voted on Blackburn's amendment during a session known as a vote-a-rama. Blackburn introduced the amendment after considering an agreement that would have watered down the provision.
According to The Verge, the measure that was rejected on Tuesday required states to avoid regulation AI and "automated decision systems" if they wanted to get funding for their broadband programs.
The provision would have been a major win for Big Tech, which has made the case that state laws around AI are obstructing their ability to do business.
Advocates and Democratic lawmakers cheered the decision to strip the provision.
"From the start, this provision had Big Tech's money and lobbyists all over it. This is a major victory for the American people over the AI industry. It shows that Americans are aware of the proliferation of AI harms in real time," said J.B. Branch, Big Tech accountability advocate at the watchdog group Public Citizen.
Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said Tuesday that "early this morning, the Senate overwhelmingly voted to reject a dangerous provision to block states from regulating artificial intelligence, including protecting kids online. This 99-1 vote sent a clear message that Congress will not sell out our kids and local communities in order to pad the pockets of Big Tech billionaires."
In addition to concerns focused on Big Tech, experts recently told The Guardian that in the absence of state-level AI regulation, untrammeled growth of AI would take a toll on the world's "dangerously overheating climate."
Sacha Haworth, the executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, credited the "massive" defeat of Cruz's provision to the "incredible mobilizing by advocates to beat back Big Tech lobbying and last-minute bullying."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Critics Shred JD Vance as He Shrugs Off Millions of Americans Losing Medicaid as 'Minutiae'
"What happened to you J.D. Vance—author of Hillbilly Elegy—now shrugging off Medicaid cuts that will close rural hospitals and kick millions off healthcare as 'minutiae?'" asked Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
Jul 01, 2025
Vice President J.D. Vance took heat from critics this week when he downplayed legislation that would result in millions of Americans losing Medicaid coverage as mere "minutiae."
Writing on X, Vance defended the budget megabill that's currently being pushed through the United States Senate by arguing that it will massively increase funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which he deemed to be a necessary component of carrying out the Trump administration's mass deportation operation.
"The thing that will bankrupt this country more than any other policy is flooding the country with illegal immigration and then giving those migrants generous benefits," wrote Vance. "The [One Big Beautiful Bill] fixes this problem. And therefore it must pass."
He then added that "everything else—the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy—is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions."
It was this line that drew the ire of many critics, as the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the Senate version of the budget bill would slash spending on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program by more than $1 trillion over a ten-year-period, which would result in more than 10 million people losing their coverage. Additionally, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) has proposed an amendment that would roll back the expansion of Medicaid under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which would likely kick millions more off of the program.
Many congressional Democrats were quick to pounce on Vance for what they said were callous comments about a vital government program.
"So if the only thing that matters is immigration... why didn't you support the bipartisan Lankford-Murphy bill that tackled immigration far better than your Ugly Bill?" asked Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-N.Y.). "And it didn't have 'minutiae' that will kick 12m+ Americans off healthcare or raise the debt by $4tn."
"What happened to you J.D. Vance—author of Hillbilly Elegy—now shrugging off Medicaid cuts that will close rural hospitals and kick millions off healthcare as 'minutiae?'" asked Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
Veteran healthcare reporter Jonathan Cohn put some numbers behind the policies that are being minimized by the vice president.
"11.8M projected to lose health insurance," he wrote. "Clinics and hospitals taking a hit, especially in rural areas. Low-income seniors facing higher costs. 'Minutiae.'"
Activist Leah Greenberg, the co-chair of progressive organizing group Indivisible, zeroed in on Vance's emphasis on ramping up ICE's funding as particularly problematic.
"They are just coming right out and saying they want an exponential increase in $$$ so they can build their own personal Gestapo," she warned.
Washington Post global affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor also found himself disturbed by the sheer size of the funding increase for ICE that Vance is demanding and he observed that "nothing matters more apparently than giving ICE a bigger budget than the militaries of virtually every European country."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Heinrich Should Be Ashamed': Lone Senate Dem Helps GOP Deliver Big Pharma Win
The provision, part of the Senate budget bill, was described as "a blatant giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry that would keep drug prices high for patients while draining $5 billion in taxpayer dollars."
Jul 01, 2025
The deep-pocketed and powerful pharmaceutical industry notched a significant victory on Monday when the Senate parliamentarian ruled that a bill described by critics as a handout to drug corporations can be included in the Republican reconciliation package, which could become law as soon as this week.
The legislation, titled the Optimizing Research Progress Hope and New (ORPHAN) Cures Act, would exempt drugs that treat more than one rare disease from Medicare's drug-price negotiation program, allowing pharmaceutical companies to charge exorbitant prices for life-saving medications in a purported effort to encourage innovation. (Medications developed to treat rare diseases are known as "orphan drugs.")
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen observed that if the legislation were already in effect, Medicare "would have been barred from negotiating lower prices for important treatments like cancer drugs Imbruvica, Calquence, and Pomalyst."
Among the bill's leading supporters is Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), whose spokesperson announced the parliamentarian's decision to allow the measure in the reconciliation package after previously advising that it be excluded. Heinrich is listed as the legislation's only co-sponsor in the Senate, alongside lead sponsor Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.).
"Sen. Heinrich should be ashamed of prioritizing drug corporation profits over lower medicine prices for seniors and people with disabilities," Steve Knievel, access to medicines advocate at Public Citizen, said in a statement Monday. "Patients and consumers breathed a sigh of relief when the Senate parliamentarian stripped the proposal from Republicans' Big Ugly Betrayal, so it comes as a gut punch to hear that Sen. Heinrich welcomed the reversal and continued to champion a proposal that will transfer billions from taxpayers to Big Pharma."
"People across the country are demanding lower drug prices and for Medicare drug price negotiations to be expanded, not restricted," Knievel added. "Sen. Heinrich should apologize to his constituents and start listening to them instead of drug corporation lobbyists."
The Biotechnology Innovation Organization, a lobbying group whose members include pharmaceutical companies, has publicly endorsed and promoted the legislation, urging lawmakers to pass it "as soon as possible."
"This is a blatant giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry that would keep drug prices high for patients."
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the ORPHAN Cures Act would cost U.S. taxpayers around $5 billion over the next decade.
Merith Basey, executive director of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, said that "patients are infuriated to see the Senate cave to Big Pharma by reviving the ORPHAN Cures Act at the eleventh hour."
"This is a blatant giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry that would keep drug prices high for patients while draining $5 billion in taxpayer dollars," said Basey. "We call on lawmakers to remove this unnecessary provision immediately and stand with an overwhelming majority of Americans who want the Medicare Negotiation program to go further. Medicare negotiation will deliver huge savings for seniors and taxpayers; this bill would undermine that progress."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular