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How Do You Monitor Your Child’s Screen Time?

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This post is presented in partnership with TeenSafe.

How Do You Monitor Your Child’s Screen Time?

Things have changed so dramatically since we were kids. The most my mom had to worry about was whether or not I was indoors before it was dark outside and whether or not I would be eating dinner at home or at my friends house down the block. Now, the internet has brought a whole new level of worry for us as parents. When I give my child a device I have to give strict parameters of how long he can use it and what apps he can access.

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It happens so easily–you give a child a phone for a few minutes while you cook dinner, or while you clean the house. Those few minutes turn into an hour and those hours start to add up.

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Fighting Screen Addiction with TeenSafe

My kids have a huge array of tablets, mostly educational and some are just for entertainment purposes. When I was growing up my mom didn’t allow any TV until my homework was completely done. I’ve employed the same tactics with my boys. Usually by the time they get done with homework, it’s time to get ready for bed–that means NO screen time until the weekends. I also need to consider that they have tech-lab in school where there are learning about computers for 40 minutes during the day.

Keeping track of your child’s screen time is not easy but it’s completely doable. Take a look at the following statistics from TeenSafe.

  • The average 8- to 10-year old child spends nearly 8 hours a day with a various media. Older children and teenagers spend more than 11 hours per day. (NYTimes)
  • Over half of 12- to 17-year old children send and receive more than 60 text messages a day. (NYTimes)
  • Teenagers send an average of 34 texts a night AFTER they get in bed, contributing to sleep deprivation. (NYTimes)
  • 92% of teens go online daily. 24% of those teens are online “almost constantly.” (PEW Internet Research)
  • Several studies have shown that internet & gaming addictions can lead to atrophy in areas of the brain that govern executive function. (Psychology Today)

Isn’t that insane? When you step back and look at all of the media that is available, it’s totally easy to spend 8 hours a day with various media (and that is crazy high!).

#FightScreenAddiction is a digital campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of screen addiction in our children. Today’s children gain access to digital devices at a very young age—with long-lasting consequences. Join the fight to bring more awareness to this very important cause!fightscreenaddiction2

#DYK 8-10 yos spend EIGHT hrs a day with media? #FightScreenAddiction ad @TeenSafeCom Click to Tweet

Do you pay attention to the your child’s screen time?

RalphDaniel

Friday 1st of December 2017

Interesting Post.

It is very important to monitor your child screen time along with that you must also monitor their activities so as to keep them safe from the dangers of the internet. For that you can use monitoring software that will help to keep a track of all the activities of your child. You can even track their exact location.

Tamara

Friday 2nd of December 2016

This is like Cassidy's one big pet peeve. He can't stand the idea of the kids using screens! I'm not sure when we'll pull the trigger but I like the idea of thinking ahead like this!

kita bryant

Thursday 1st of December 2016

My son was failing so I had to cut him down some but I am going to upgrade his phone and get some stuff off of there so I can really monitor him because it's too much overload so we need to start all over.

Janine HulDie

Thursday 1st of December 2016

I think you know that we do our best here to limit screen time, but still it is a daily battle with my kids no matter what as this is the environment we live in now like it or not. Thanks for the reminder here though with the awesome infographic, as well!

Allie

Thursday 1st of December 2016

We definitely have a lot of rules when it comes to screen time but, I find there are a lot of positives as well. The boys have a crazy imagination and, creating videos to post to their private YouTube account is a creative outlet for them. For sure there is a lot of bad when it comes to screens and I can't imagine how difficult it becomes in the teen years!! PS - Awesome graphics :-)