Kids Healthy Screen Time Use Guide

When kids spend too much time glued to their screens, they have less time for healthy habits like sleep, physical activity, and time outdoors. These healthy habits are a huge part of their overall well-being. Use our Kids Healthy Screen Time Use Guide as a resource to regulate these healthy habits!

Kid’s Screen Time At An All-Time High

The COVID-19 pandemic saw many schools shut down and implement learn from home programs and online classes that have changed the way our children use and interact with technology in their day-to-day schoolwork. This shift to online classes and schoolwork has normalized the increased amount of screen-time our children get. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, children aged 8-12 spent five hours a day in front of a screen, while teenagers spent as much as nine hours a day. A study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on adolescent brains found that, during COVID, the average screen time increased to 7.7 hours for 12-13 year olds, not including schoolwork!

Screen Time and Growing Brains

This widespread use of technology has never been experienced by any previous generation. Researchers have warned that too much use of smartphones can impair the development of social skills, critical thinking, and impulse control. In 2018, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) study conducted that children who spent more than 2 hours a day on screen-time activities scored lower on language and thinking tests. Other children with more than 7 hours of screen-time a day experienced thinning of the brain’s cortex, the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning!

Dangers of the Internet

Alongside the dangers of prolonged screen use lie the dangers of the content our kids watch and engage with. Increased screen time means increased risk of exposure to inappropriate content, cyberbullying, online predators, and mental health concerns such as depression, anxiety, and even internet addiction.

What Can We Do To Regulate Kids Healthy Screen Time Use

Start off your children with a basic cell phone, not a smartphone. Consider joining the Wait Until 8^th pledge, a pledge by parents to wait until their children start the 8^th grade before giving them cell phones.

Set limits. Consider creating a plan to keep cellphones and devices out of bedrooms at night, or implementing house wide internet breaks. Mealtimes can be a tech-free activity the whole family can participate in, even the parents.

Set up parental controls. Many apps and devices will allow you to set parental controls and restrict what content your kids can access, or even set a time limit to restrict use.

Discuss why these restrictions are important. Talk to your children about the dangers of the internet and unlimited internet use.

Encourage physical activity in nature. Daily time outdoors can combat the inactivity caused by prolonged screen-time. Try taking some time outside in the yard or at a park as a family.

Using these following tips should help in imposing proper kids healthy screen time use!