In 2023, 42% of kids have their own tablet or device. This is up from less then 1% back in 2011.
With technology growing and advancing at such a rapid rate, how can we as parents maintain control of our kids and their screen time? Let explore the challenges of kids and technology!
The Digital Age
Technology is huge, it is 2023 after all. Today it seems almost impossible to keep kids away from it. Technology can be great in many different ways for children. Kids can connect with family members and friend to enrich relationships via video chat or other live apps. Technology can provide almost infinite learning opportunities for kids. However, all this technology can have some downsides as well both physically and mentally for children. The big physical ones are just a more sedentary lifestyle, less exercise and activity. The other big one is sleep disruption, using screens before bedtime. I know from personal experience that I really enjoy my toddler much more when he gets a good night’s sleep! The mental and emotion issues that can be cause are quite numerous from digital addiction, decreased focus to social development issues. So how do we as parents handle these issues and manage to stay in control?
The Role of Parents in Managing Screen time
This topic is really important to me as a father. I really enjoy spending quality time with my son. As he has been growing up, my wife and I have not allowed any screen time until he was 2. Now we allow him 30 minutes on some days to watch one of his favorite educational shows (His are Ms Rachel or Blippi on YouTube). When he does watch these shows, either my wife or I will sit with him and watch them as well while interacting with him. I think this is very helpful to keep him engaged with things going on around him and not just being sucked into the show. Parents play a very crucial role as guides in a child’s life, this goes for their digital life as well. By actively engaging with him I can keep an eye on what he is watching as well as mitigating some of the potential downsides mentioned above.
Quality Screen Time vs Quantity
For us as parents the distinction between Quality Screen time and Quantity may be the most important thing for us to understand. The way I describe this is that Quality Screen time is: Engaging, Educational, Age-Appropriate material. Where quantity is just the number of endless hours a child spends in front of a screen. As mentioned above, technology can provide a ton of learning and developmental opportunities for children when used properly. This quality screen time is what my wife and I strive for when we do allow our son some screen time. As parents we should all be trying to have quality screen time within reasonable limits to avoid some of the negative consequences that come from too much screen time.
Finding a Balance that works for your Family.
Screen time and technology is very tough to manage in this day and age. I understand every situation is different and I think every family needs to find something that works for them. It is not always easy, in fact not allowing your kids to have unmonitored screen time can be very hard when you have a million other things going on. The first things that I have done is to establish clear and consistent boundaries for our son’s screen time. If we watch an episode of our favorite show that day, it is right after breakfast. We don’t watch it at any other times. He knows this. We highly encourage him to go outside and play, to read, to do other activities that are fun and active. In fact, I participate in the majority of these other activities with him. Me and him have a rule that we do one fun adventure per day, whether it’s going to the local park, or just going outside and biking around the house.
Conclusion
In summary I cannot stress enough how important I think managing our kids’ screen time is. It is something that both my wife and I view as very important, so we put a big emphasis on it. Technology when used properly can be great for kids. Too often I see it being used poorly though which can lead to all kinds of negative consequences in children, things like: Lack of Focus, physical health issues, digital addiction, social development issues, depression and anxiety, parent-child conflict. These things are all very easy to avoid with a few simple steps. 1.) Establish screen and No Screen time zones. 2.) Monitor/Engage with your child during the screen times. 3.) Encourage other healthy activities, such as reading or going outside to play. 4.) Spend quality time with your child each day.
Let me know what you think below in the comments!
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Previously Published on Duty to Diapers
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