How does screen time affect language development?

Between September and December 2023, Babylonia collected questions from parents regarding their children's language development. This article aims to answer the following questions: I am the mom of a 17 months old. My husband lets him watch some TV (mainly kids songs, in German, my husband’s first language) but I don’t because I heard that it is bad for his language development. I recently noticed that our son actually learns things from those videos (especially counting on his fingers, or clapping when instructed etc.) I don’t know what to think anymore: is educational TV really that bad for language learning in toddlers? What are the effects of screen time on language development? Can the child learn the English language by watching English-speaking cartoons?