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I agree with you but I'm also familiar with the original research the claim about screen time stems from. The claim is that screen time is not effective for "bootstrapping" a different language for very small children - having human interaction does a much better job at that.

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Regarding that research, I can see that human interaction should more efficient but that doesn't imply that screen time should be ineffective. And my kid is a counterexample, because it did bootstrap her English. She had no other source since we live in Argentina and we practically didn't talk to her in English. For a while she had some serious British accent because she was hooked on Peppa Pig, but now she sounds mostly American.

I agree 100% with you. I'm also from a non-English primary language group (South African) and I taught myself English mostly from television. Assuredly people would have been better since it's an adaptive learning experience with feedback, but even tv worked for me.

I came out with a bit of an odd accent though, as if I combined all the television accents into one.

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