How You Can Limit and Control Your Kids’ Screen Time
Most kids have become lazybones, and many are unfamiliar with outside activities. Co-curricular activities are undoubtedly crucial for kids as they positively impact human minds and bodies. However, the extravagant use of gadgets has caused this generation many problems like weak eyesight, weaker muscles, and poor sleeping routines.
Children watch television, use laptops and computers, play games, and do other stuff on tablets and mobile phones. The present way of schooling requires screens for doing homework, completing assignments, or searching for different educational projects. Furthermore, kids spend much of their extra time playing online games, watching kids’ shows and cartoons, streaming videos, and using social media accounts for chatting.
School-going kids require other activities, like playing outside games, exercising, getting proper sleep, and spending time with family. That’s why parents need to apply screen time rules.
We can only succeed with proper planning, so this article will reveal all parents need to know about the average screen time of tweens and teens.
Let’s discuss it further in detail.
Four Main Sets of Screen Time:
According to a study, there are four main screen time sets: passive consumption, interactive consumption, communicational consumption, and content creation.
Here are the details of screen time categories.
- Passive Consumption:
A screen time where the viewer watches videos or other entertaining shows, listens to music, or reads different writing is a passive screen time consumption.
- Interactive Consumption:
Mobile phone users play online games or browse different sites on the Internet.
- Communicational Purpose:
The user chats or video chat with their friends, fellows, or relatives on social media networks.
- Create Content:
The user makes some musical or digital pieces of art.
All these activities mentioned above are relatively different but as valuable as possible for the average screen time user. So, if parents want healthier physical, mental, or psychological growth, they must be strict with ideal screen timings according to the age of their twenties and teens.
How Longer Screen Time Is Enough for Kids and Teens?
Healthcare professionals recommend 2 hours of screen time for 5 to 17-year-old children.
Moreover, it depends on parents, like how long they think would be enough screen time for their kids. Secondly, the average screen time for kids and teens varies according to their age limits. Just the way every age group of kids and teens has different diet plans. For example, time spent on educational activities or homework might not need to be restricted to screen time.
Screen time should be good for the kids’ eating, sleeping, playing, communicating, and studying. If it appears disturbing, parents would think about how their kids would reach their goals with extravagant screen timing.
What are the Problems Kids Face for Their Excessive Screen Time?
Unstructured playtime would be more worthwhile and developable for kids than these modern gadgets. Kids younger than 24 months are more likely to learn and remember operating modern devices than older generations.
By growing older, kids can benefit from different categories of screen time, like changing the video, turning on the following video, or playing other games. Furthermore, you can help your kids understand how to apply valuable lessons in real life.
Some strong evidence suggests that if kids spend much of their time on screen at an early age, they would be more likely to become/have
- Overweight or obese.
- Sleep issues or irregular sleep schedules.
- Behavioral issues.
- Less social skills.
- Poor educational records.
- Violence.
- Less time for exercise and outdoor games.
What Should be Ideal Screen Time for Children?
Here is a recommended ideal screen time by age:
- Birth to 18 months:
Avoid giving cell phones to children under 18 months, except for taking photographs or making video calls.
- 18 to 24 months:
Kids aged between 18-24 months should spend as much as possible less time on screens.
- 2 to 5 years:
Children between 2 and 5 years must have an hour of screen time per day at maximum.
- Six years to over:
The parents of kids older than six years must place screen time limits. And ensure that screen time on mobile, computer, TV, or tablet doesn’t affect kids’ studying, eating, and sleeping time.
How Do You Avoid Excessive Screen Time For Kids?
Guardians and parents of kids and tweens need to double down on ensuring everyone gets enough diet, sleep, and playtime. That means typically scuffling devices, which disturb kids’ routine for daily life activities. Parents should lessen their screen time and indulge kids in fruitful activities, i.e., playing different constructive games, proper time schedules for studying, and bedtime. We all know that we are slacking here presently.
Let’s find some more tips for making kids avoid smart devices.
Use Parental Control:
By using parental monitoring software, you can track your kids’ locations and online activities and manage screen time. The software lets you monitor and view call and message history. We recommend the NexaSpy app for parental monitoring.
Use of Screen Limits:
Add limitations for your kids using modern devices. Try to select the applications that would help you reduce your teens’ screen time. Different parental control software like NexaSpy allows you to set screen limits with remote access. These applications permit you to view all your children’s previous online activities. Such parental monitoring software helps you maintain proper playing, eating, and sleeping time.
Screen time can be enticing when you are busy. Learning is an integral part of life. Instead of providing kids access to modern devices, you could give them a toy or a creative activity. Properly avoid your kids relying on the screen when you’re cooking a meal or washing laundry.
Select What Your Kids Should Watch:
Parental monitoring applications allow you to select what kind of applications or programs your kids should watch. These applications support the parents of kids aged between 2-5 years with valuable recommendations.
Avoid apps and videos that are fast-paced and noisy, as they are not ideal for children.
Set Smart Devices in the Centre of the House:
Be with your kids watching anything on the Internet or TV programs. Tell them what they should and shouldn’t see. It’s better to know how anything they are watching relates to their lives.
Ensure your kids stay in the lounge or center of the house using mobile phones or other smart devices.
Screen-Free Zones:
Make your bed and meal time screen-free. Avoid providing screens in kids’ bedrooms and dining rooms. Further, you can use parental monitoring software to update you about your kids’ online activity during bedtime.
Set Fine Examples:
Turning off the devices when not in use would help them adopt good habits. Also, avoid using cell phones in front of your children to set an example.
Guide Them on Social Interactions:
As the kids age, guide them on how to treat others online and offline. Tell them why it is crucial to know the online world.
The online space is full of cheaters and predators all around. Parents’ primary responsibility is to guide kids about the dangers and threats digital space could have. The technocrat would access them to make them vulnerable to online interaction. Parents must observe kids using online apps and software. The best parental control software, NexaSpy, helps you monitor your target device remotely.
Conclusion:
Controlling your kids’ use of devices and screens would be a long-term challenge for parents. However, making household and screen time rules can reduce the pressure. Similarly, revisiting their rooms and quickly checking their smart devices via parental monitoring software would help maintain a safe atmosphere.
