Should You Limit Your Child’s Screen Time

Should You Limit Your Child’s Screen Time?

One of the most heated trending topics today, how much screen time is too much?

Well, children today are overwhelmed by the presence of TVs, laptops, mobile phones and ipads. It’s almost heart-aching to watch them texting all day, lingering on social media and watching unfiltered content. In today’s digital world, keeping children away from their screens is a huge challenge for parents. However, depriving them of smartphones is not a feasible solution, since tablets/smartphones are a great way of learning for them. Also, parents have been subjected to real-time device location reporting.

Study says, children of 8-12 years spend about 6 hours on their mobile devices while teens spend about 9 hours. While we are all aware of the adverse effects of excessive screen time, some of the major side effects include low grades in school, sleeping problems, behavioral issues, slower self development and mood disorders.

Coming back to the question, should there be a screen time limit for your child? Most certainly, yes.

Why should parents limit screen time?

As a parent, here are some headline-grabbing stats you must be aware of.

1. Screen addiction can hamper brain development.

2. Children under the age of two are already seen playing with smartphones.

3. Tweens spend less time outside than prisoners.

4. 1 in 5 kids are addicted to mobile gaming apps.

5. 4 in 5 tweens are on social media.

6. 23% of the kids miss their sleep because of spending too much time on their phone.

There is no denying that kids are spending immoderate time on their smartphones today which is causing them harm in many ways.

Negative effects of screen time on child development:

Too much screen time is bad on many different levels.

1. Excessive screen time disrupts the ability of building social skills.

2. An addiction to mobile gaming can cause major aggression amongst children.

3. All day texting can cause various aches and pains in the body.

4. Remember the 20/20/20 rule, children certainly don’t follow that. This leads to an immediate eye strain.

5. The use of any device inordinately demands a sedentary nature, leading to childhood obesity.

6. Without any question, it leads to low self-esteem, weak emotional judgment, impaired cognitive skills, sleep deprivation and delayed learning.

Don’t let your child drown in the sea of tech, catch up before it gets too late.

How can parents limit screen time?

Create a smartphone schedule

A schedule is essential for every age group, and kids are no exception. Track your child’s device usage and restrict it by setting a limit. Encourage tech-free zones, household chores, playdates and other activities. Auto and remotely lock a child’s device when it’s time out. Moderation is the key.

Active supervision

It goes without saying, kids are naive. They are not going to look into details like the screen brightness, distance or posture. If parents don’t actively supervise, it will majorly impact the development of a child. Engage with your children when they are on their screens, it’s also a smart way of peeping into their activities.

Restrict social media

Exchanging messages on social media platforms and having other interactions create a feel good ‘dopamine’ loop in the brain. In a tad bit way this leads to an unhealthy dependency on social media platforms which multiplies the screen time by manifold. Monitor your child’s social media presence proactively and block any questionable services with our content filtration feature.

Besides the aforementioned, set passwords, communicate more, practice what you preach, don’t let them treat technology as an emotional pacifier and bond with your child as much as you can.

A parental control app allows monitoring and filtering undesirable content while fostering digital literacy. Let the young mind’s transform, while you take care of their safety and wellbeing.