Even the phrase “screen time” glosses over important distinctions, says Andrew Przybylski, an associate professor at the University of Oxford and director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute. FaceTiming with a grandparent, playing online chess and bingeing on junky YouTube videos serve different needs and have different consequences, and shouldn’t be lumped together.

Research that Przybylski co-authored last year looked at tech use data from more than 17,000 teens in the US, UK and Ireland. It found that total daily screen time had little measurable effect on teens’ mental health. A second study Przybylski co-authored last year examined data from more than 35,000 US children and their caregivers. They found that children who spent one to two hours a day with technology showed higher levels of wellbeing that those who had no access at all. Hardly any of their subjects spent enough time with technology to show measurable psychological harm as a result.

“We have [always] been concerned about new tech turning kids into zombies. This goes back thousands of years, literally going back to Plato,” Przybylski says. (The Greek philosopher worried about the potential of drama and poetry to warp impressionable minds.) In the current circumstances, he says, “my genuine hope is that parents are going to cut themselves some slack”.