Media · Two-part direct question · Band 7
Who Should Limit Children's Screen Time?
The question, a model answer written to the band 7 descriptors, why it scores that band against the 4 official criteria, topic vocabulary, and a common mistake to avoid.
Two-part direct question
Children today spend significantly more time in front of screens than previous generations. Who should be mainly responsible for limiting this (parents, schools, or technology companies), and what specific steps could they take? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Model answer (band 7)
Written to the band 7 descriptors, not by a real examiner. Read it for structure and language, then write your own in your own words. Examiners can tell a memorised essay from an original one.
Children's screen time has risen dramatically over the past decade, and while all three parties have some role, I believe parents are mainly responsible, since they control a child's daily environment most directly, with schools and technology companies providing essential supporting structures.
Parents are best positioned to set and enforce consistent, daily boundaries, such as screen-free mealtimes and a firm cut-off before bedtime, because they observe their child's individual behaviour closely enough to judge when screen use is becoming genuinely excessive rather than simply age-appropriate. Modelling healthy habits themselves, rather than imposing rules while remaining constantly on their own devices, also meaningfully reinforces these boundaries in a way that external rules from schools or companies cannot replicate within the home environment.
However, parents cannot realistically address this issue entirely alone, especially once children reach an age where they use devices largely outside direct parental supervision. Schools have an important supporting role in teaching digital literacy, helping children understand how apps are deliberately designed to maximise engagement, giving them the awareness to self-regulate their own use more effectively as they grow older and begin making more independent choices. Technology companies, meanwhile, bear specific responsibility for designing products with children's wellbeing genuinely in mind, including sensible default time limits and reduced use of manipulative engagement techniques, such as infinite scroll and auto-play, on products explicitly marketed toward children or that children commonly use regardless of the intended audience.
In conclusion, while parents hold the primary day-to-day responsibility for limiting screen time, meaningful, lasting progress requires schools teaching digital literacy and technology companies building genuinely child-appropriate products, working together rather than in isolation.
Why this answer scores band 7
Mapped to the 4 official IELTS Writing criteria.
- Task Response: both parts (who is responsible, what specific steps) are addressed explicitly, with a clear, defended hierarchy of responsibility across all three parties.
- Coherence and Cohesion: logical structure moving from primary responsibility (parents) to supporting roles (schools, companies), with explicit connecting language throughout.
- Lexical Resource: precise vocabulary ('digital literacy', 'infinite scroll', 'default time limit') used accurately and with genuine command of the topic.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: sustained complex sentence structures, including comparative and purpose clauses, with very few errors throughout.
Useful vocabulary & collocations
Phrases used in the model answer that lift Lexical Resource naturally.
Common mistake on this type of question
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