TV, Gaming, Social Media; Navigating Screen Time For Our Kids

Most Australian children spend more time in front of a screen than is recommended. The impact on health and wellbeing, and the challenging behaviours that come with managing screen usage is a major problem for many parents and caregivers.

So what are the guidelines around screen usage?

In Australia the current recommendation is no screen time for those under the age of two, no more than 1 hour per day for children between 2-5 and no more than 2 hours per day of recreational screen time for children 5-17.

What are the risks of too much screen time?

Studies have shown that too much screen time can inhibit certain aspects of a child’s development. It can narrow their focus of interest, therefore taking curiosity away from other means of exploration and learning. Using electronic devices is instantly highly entertaining, so encouraging engagement in other creative, social and imaginative activities becomes more challenging.

It is necessary for normal development to have many opportunities to explore the environment and practice engaging with others socially.

If children don’t have enough of these experiences it will impact their ability to learn new things and interact with others. Children need reciprocal dialogue in order to develop their language and social interaction. The one-way interaction with a screen will not allow for development in communication and social skills. It is the back-and-forth conversation, reacting to the other person and reading facial expressions that does this.

Physical health can be a concern too, as generally when a child is looking at a screen they are sedentary.

We want our children to have down time where they can be relaxed and quiet, but multiple hours on a device isn’t the way.

Is all screen time the same?

In monitoring the screen time for our children we need to be aware of the content they are ingesting and the context in which they are engaging in it. Watching a family movie together  in the family living room is very different from watching 2 hours of You Tube in their room.

We have to make decisions intentionally.

If screen usage is habitual, unintentional and passive, such as having the TV switched on all day or scrolling through social media and You Tube throughout the day, then it’s likely to be impacting other important areas of their lives. Physical activity, relationship building, sleep, recreation and developing talents can be displaced when screen usage is passive and habitual.

Being more intentional about how screens are used in the home means creating some boundaries. Think about whether you want your child to be using the iPad in their room or in a communal space in the house, are screens allowed at all in bedrooms? Do you want all phones turned off as soon as dinner is served? Are screens allowed after dinner? These will be different for each family and it will also depend on the child’s age. Something important to remember, however, especially for those children over the age of around 8, is that decisions around screen usage are made with your child in order to come to a collaborative resolution.

We can do this by first talking to our children about how they like to use their devices; what, where and why. We want our children to know that we want them to enjoy themselves and we don’t want to establish rules that are unfair. We then talk them through what our concerns are about too much screen time or safety, so that they get the opportunity to ask questions and understand the need for some boundaries. Finally, we invite them to work out with us what the boundaries will be.

When our children feel heard and see that their opinions are taken into consideration they are more likely to follow through with boundaries that are put in place.

Always an argument when it is time to get off the device?

Sometimes we can have all of these conversations with our children and feel like they are on board, but when it comes to reminding them that their time is up, or when the timer goes off, we will still hear “5 more minutes!” again and again, or it instigates an argument. An approach to consider when the time limits aren’t working is being aware of where a natural completion may happen. We can become more curious and considerate about what it is they are watching or playing, so we can find these. If they are playing a game and in the middle of a particular level, they will be very unhappy about having to stop and lose the progress they have made so far. Similarly, if they are in the middle of watching something, it is harder to stop watching than it would be when the episode ends. Learn a bit about how the game works, for example, and maybe even play with them on occasion, so that we can understand that it may take 10 or 30 minutes to complete a level. Check in with how long episodes of their favourite show is. This way we can give them enough time to come to some conclusion or achievement with what they are doing. So instead of saying “5 more minutes before your time is up” we are saying “ok, so this is the last episode please turn it off when it finishes” or “When this level is complete it’s time to turn it off”.

Safety!

Another important aspect of screen usage aside from physical health and wellbeing is safety.

Using a device feels safe, because it is in your home, but there are potential risks of letting things into your home that you would absolutely not normally let in. We have to think about the content of what is being watched, which might be scary, violent or pornographic and about potential contact with unknown people that may be dangerous.

We can start talking to our children as young as 3 about rules around using devices.

These rules could be; always make sure a parent or adult caregiver is close by, don’t press on buttons you don’t know, never talk to people you don’t know and tell your trusted adult if you see something that makes you feel uncomfortable. 

If children are using screens it is our responsibility to keep them safe. By giving them the tools and information early we are setting a solid foundation for our children to get the benefits out of the devices available to us without the dangers.

Screen time is not all bad. When we are mindful of its usage it can be valuable.

With attentive boundaries it can be a way for our children to connect positively with friends, a tool for learning and a way to get the family to relax together on a rainy day!