Why is it so important to manage screen time?

Studies have shown a link between excessive screen usage and higher levels of anxiety and sadness. Reduce your screen time and devote it to activities like exercise, reading, or spending quality time with loved ones to enhance your mental health and well-being.

Managing Screen Time for Kids: Guidelines for Parents

With screens everywhere, keeping track of a child's screen time may be tough. To complicate things, some screen time may be instructive and beneficial to children's social development. So, how do you handle your child's screen time? Here's an introduction to guiding your child's usage of devices and media.

What Is Screen Time, And Why Is It Important?

A child receiving a smartphone is equivalent to receiving a car. TVs increasingly include built-in streaming services. Computers and digital devices dominate daily life at school and business. On average, children and adults spend more time online than outside. All of this may be attributable to one single concept: screen time.

What Does Screen Time Mean?

Screen time is a word used to describe sedentary behaviour that occurs in front of a screen. Screen time accounts for nearly all of the time spent in front of a screen, whether it's on a mobile device, a computer screen for work, or watching films or video games.

Why Should We Care About Screen Time?

The average time spent on screens and devices has been continuously increasing for years, as new products are launched regularly and become more accessible. There is still much disagreement about whether or not screen use has a negative impact on people's lives, relationships, or personal growth, but one thing is certain: screen time is here to stay. What we can do is begin to investigate what screen time is, its benefits and drawbacks, and ways to maintain a healthy balance between screen time and other activities in life.

What Are The Effects Of Screen Time?

Screen time is a recent phenomenon, and its consequences are currently being investigated by experts. While it is a wide and intricate topic, screen time has already been demonstrated to have negative impacts on the mind, which appear in varying ways at different ages. Its impacts are divided into three categories: mental, physical, and emotional.

Mental: While additional research is being published regularly, a few findings have already been linked to screen time use, such as poor sleep patterns, difficulty paying attention, and addictive behaviour. It's vital to remember that not all screen time is negative, but excessive use can lead to additional issues.

Physical: It goes without saying that any time spent staring at a screen is unlikely to be spent doing anything physical. Most games, whether mobile or console, involve minimal physical effort and can take up valuable exercise or outdoor time. Passive consumption can result in unhealthy behaviours, particularly regarding diet and exercise. The experts have found a link between media usage and obesity. Exposure to screens before bed, late at night, or even in the middle of the night can disrupt circadian rhythms and result in poor sleep quality and patterns, which can carry over into other aspects of life.

Emotional: Along with the mental and physical consequences, screen time and its regular functions, such as notifications and endless scrolling, have an emotional cost. Overexposure to screens, digital gadgets, and time spent online has been linked to anxiety disorders, difficulty concentrating, and even depression. Social contacts in person might be difficult, leading to a retreat from friends and family. In rare situations, both children and adults can acquire screen dependencies or addictions and struggle to overcome these challenges, such as difficulty disconnecting from social media.

The Difficulties With Screens

Excessive screen time and frequent exposure to low-quality programs have been related to

Obesity
Inadequate sleep patterns and sleep
Behavioural issues
Delays in language and social skill development
Violence
Attention issues
Spend less time studying

Keep in mind that unstructured activity is more beneficial to a child's growing brain than electronic media. Children under the age of two are more likely to learn when they engage and play with their parents, siblings, other children, and adults.Children as young as two years old may benefit from screen time that includes music, movement, and tales. By watching together, you may help your child comprehend and apply what they see in real life.

How Much Screen Time Is Healthy On Average?

While there is much discussion over recommended screen time by age, limitations will vary for everyone and may fluctuate over time. Experts generally believe that the less screen time a person, child, or family has, the better. Here's a quick look at average screen time by age:

Kids (0-8): It is recommended that younger children have the highest device and screen time limits and be the most closely monitored. Developing excellent screen time habits at a young age is critical for children who may not completely grasp what they view. The recommended screen time for children aged 0 to 8 is no more than two hours per day.

Tweens (9–12): As children grow older, providing new regulations around access to screen time should go hand in hand. While it is typically recommended that older children not be given much more screen time than younger children, adding new apps to the mix may occur around this time, as well as a (very) slow introduction to increased screen time guidelines. This is an excellent time to begin preparing tweens for stricter guidelines and discussions about which apps are acceptable and which should be avoided, such as social networking or video games.

Teens (13–18): Getting a smartphone is now a rite of passage for teenagers, and many of them immediately download the latest social networking app and begin communicating with their friends. While this might be beneficial for social development, excessive screen usage for adolescents can be detrimental to their emotional well-being. It can be difficult to impose downtime with teenagers, but the average recommended screen time is three hours per day—unless they need to be online for school. It is up to parents to decide how to control screen time, but one thing is certain: kids must also set time restrictions for themselves.

Creating Screen Time Rules

The experts prohibit children under the age of 18 months from using media, except for video conferencing. If you offer digital media to children aged 18 to 24 months, make sure it is of excellent quality and do not leave them unassisted. For children aged 2 to 5, restrict screen usage to one hour per day of high-quality content.As your child develops, a one-size-fits-all strategy becomes less effective. You'll need to determine how much media your child may use each day and what is suitable.Consider using the same rules in both your child's actual and virtual worlds. In both, play with your child, teach compassion, be engaged, and learn about your child's friends and what they do. Remember that the quality of media your child is exposed to is more significant than the kind of device or amount of time spent.

To Ensure Good Screen Time

Before enabling your child to see or play with programmes, games, or applications, preview them first. Organisations that provide programme ratings and evaluations to help you determine what is acceptable for your child's age. Better yet, watch, play, or utilise them with your child.
Choose interactive alternatives that interest your child over those that just involve pressing, swiping, or looking at the device.
Use parental controls to restrict or filter internet material.
Keep your child nearby during screen time so you can monitor his or her actions.
Ask your child about the programmes, games, and applications they have used during the day.
When watching television with your child, talk about what you're watching and teach them about advertising.

Also, avoid fast-paced programming that young children struggle to grasp, as well as violent material and applications with a lot of distractions. Advertising should be removed from applications because young children struggle to distinguish between commercials and true information.

Setting Restrictions For Older Children

Create clear guidelines and appropriate restrictions for your child's usage of digital media. Consider these tips from Dr Nishant Bansal:

Encourage disconnected and unstructured playing
Create tech-free zones or times, such as during meals or on one night each week
Discourage the use of media for amusement while schoolwork
Set and enforce daily or weekly screen time limitations and curfews, such as not using gadgets or screens one hour before sleep
Consider employing applications that limit the amount of time a child may use a gadget
Keep screens out of your child's bedroom, and consider asking them to charge their gadgets outside of their rooms at night
Disable background TV

Encourage Digital Literacy

Your child will eventually be exposed to unapproved material and gadgets with no internet filters. Discuss potential scenarios with them, as well as the expected behaviour.Encourage your child to reflect critically on what they see on their devices. Ask them to examine if everything on the internet is correct. Do they know how to determine if a website is trustworthy? Help your child comprehend that media is created by individuals who have different points of view. Explain that various forms of technology gather data from users to send them advertisements or generate money.

Teaching Acceptable Behaviour

Online connections and social media have become an important aspect of teenage life. Experts believe it is okay for adolescents to participate in these worlds as long as they learn proper behaviour. Explain what is permitted and what is not, such as sexting, cyberbullying, and revealing personal information online. Teach your child not to email or post anything online that they do not want the whole world to see forever.Monitor your child's internet and social media behaviour, regardless of how clever or mature you believe they are. Your child is sure to make mistakes with the media. Speak with them and help them learn from their mistakes.Additionally, set a positive example. Consider that your child is watching you for indications about when and how to use devices.As your child develops, you will most likely need to continue guiding, managing, and monitoring their usage of devices and media. However, by creating home rules and revising them, you may help create a safe environment.

FAQs On Managing Screen Time: Guidelines for Parents

Why is it so important to manage screen time?Studies have shown a link between excessive screen usage and higher levels of anxiety and sadness. Reduce your screen time and devote it to activities like exercise, reading, or spending quality time with loved ones to enhance your mental health and well-being.
How much screen time is healthy?Experts recommend that individuals restrict their screen use outside of work to less than two hours each day. The time you normally spend on screens should be spent equally in engaging in physical exercise.

Managing Screen Time: Guidelines For Parents

In this article: