CA, Early Years suggest Screen-Free Week

This may not sit well with television executives and advertisers: CA Inc., the Islandia-based software giant, and Plainview-based nonprofit The Early Years Institute, are holding a second-annual Screen-Free Week. Except for work or homework, CA and EYI are asking parents and students to turn off their screens for the week of April 30 through May 6.

EYI president Dana E. Friedman, who helped bring the Screen-Free Week to Long Island after hearing about it at a convention in North Carolina, said instead of screens, parents and kids should play, sing, cook, fly a kite, read books or just enjoy family time together.

Last year, Friedman said, some people expressed the belief that a screen-free week was "too intimidating." But she told them, "This is only for one week. There are things you have to use technology for. We're talking about [turning off] the entertainment" screens.

How much screen time do kids log? EYI said that by the time today's children are 30 years old, they will have spent 10 years of their lives glued to one screen or another.