For Maltese parents, screen time is no problem

Maltese parents are among the least negative in Europe about the impact of screen time on young people, according to a new EU-wide study on adolescents’ use of screens, social media and mental health.

The Flash Eurobarometer survey found that, across the EU, parents are far more critical than teenagers about the impact of screens and social media. At EU level, 51% of parents said screens had a negative impact on the lives of young people, compared with 29% of adolescents.

The report shows that parental criticism was lowest in Malta, Luxembourg, Denmark and Ireland, peaking in countries such as Greece, Portugal and Poland.

In Malta, 31% of those surveyed said screens have a negative impact on young people, while 60% said the impact was positive. The remainder said the impact was neither positive nor negative.

The study also suggests that the gap between how parents and teenagers view screen use is smaller in Malta than in some other member states. Across the EU, 40% of adolescents said screens had a positive impact on young people their age, compared with just 17% of parents.

On social media specifically, 48% of adolescents said it had a positive impact on their mental well-being, compared with 21% of parents.

The survey, carried out for the European Commission’s directorate-general for health and food safety, looked at screen time, social media use, online harm and self-reported well-being among teenagers aged 13 to 18 across all 27 EU member states.

Weekends

It found that Maltese teenagers also spend less time on screens during weekends than most of their European peers.

Adolescents across the EU spend an average of 6.1 hours a day on screens during weekends. In Malta, the figure was lower, at around 5.1 hours, placing the country near the bottom of the EU table.

Only Luxembourg and Cyprus recorded lower levels of weekend screen use. Sweden had the highest weekend average, at 7.3 hours.

Across Europe, teenagers spend an average of 4.5 hours on screens on a typical school day.

Almost half of European adolescents reported spending more than six hours a day on screens during the weekend, while 14% said they spent more than 10 hours.

Malta also ranked highly when parents were asked whether they had become aware that their child had had a negative online experience.

The report places Malta at the top of the EU ranking on parental awareness of such incidents. In Malta, 54% of parents said their child had told them about a negative online experience, 30% said someone else had told them and 27% said they discovered it themselves. Respondents could choose more than one answer.

However, the study found Malta differed from most countries in how parents reacted after becoming aware of a negative online experience. Across the EU, the most common response was to discuss the situation with the child. Malta was the exception, with adjusting rules or supervision ranking first.

Help

Maltese adolescents were also among the most likely in the EU to say they would seek professional help, such as a school counsellor or psychologist, to protect their mental well-being when using social media. The figure for Malta was 28%, compared with an EU average of 14%.

The findings come as Malta debates whether to regulate children’s access to social media.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has said the government was considering legislative action to regulate social media access for children under 13, noting that children should have access to social media “as late as possible”.

The government has since launched a Green Paper and public consultation on social media reform, aimed at strengthening protections for children, adolescents and vulnerable people.

Momentum has called for Malta to follow Australia’s example and introduce a national ban on social media use for children under 16.

A senior WHO Europe official also called for a national debate in Malta on regulating social media use among children and teenagers.

The Eurobarometer report cautions that its findings are based on self-reported data and should not be treated as proof of direct causal links between screen use and mental health outcomes. Malta’s sample was also smaller than most countries, with 595 adolescents and 250 parents surveyed.