‘Screen time’ is the amount of time people spend using devices like tablets, phones, laptops or gaming consoles. The amount of time young people spend using these devices can be a source of worry and conflict for many families.
In this post, we will help answer the questions that parents and carers may have about screen time.
Is there a perfect amount of screen time?
At Childnet, we often hear parents and carers asking about the ‘perfect’ amount of screen time for their children. However, there is no simple answer to this question.
In 2019, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) published research on the impacts of screen time, and found that there are is no ideal limit on screen time. Instead, the perfect amount of screen time will depend on your family and what works for you.
Quality over quantity
While the RCPCH have advised that there is no perfect amount of screen time, they have said that screen time should not replace exercise, time spent together as a family, or sleep.
When thinking about the right amount of screen time for your children, it is useful to think about the quality of the time being spent on devices, and ask yourself what your child is gaining from their time online.
Children could be spending time socialising with their friends on different apps, scrolling through TikTok, playing videogames, or doing research for homework. Positive use of technology can support young people’s wellbeing, as long as they strike a healthy balance between these and offline activities.
While there are many ways that technology can have a positive impact on wellbeing, if children are viewing inappropriate content online, it can have an impact on their behaviour and mental health, no matter how long they spend viewing that content.
Having discussions about warning signs
Everyone has different warning signs that tell them when they have been online for too long. It could be that your eyes start to hurt, you get a headache, you feel sleepy, or start to feel more negative emotions.
To promote a healthy balance between online and offline activities, try talking about these warning signs with your children, and model what to do when experiencing them. This could mean having a conversation when you realise you’ve been online for too long, and pointing out how you know, or asking your children how being online for a long time makes them feel.
If your child shows significant mood changes after being online, such as becoming angry, upset or withdrawn, this could be a sign that they have seen something upsetting or worrying. Make sure to check in with them about what they might have seen online.
Our ‘Get Help’ page has lots of useful tips on what to do if your child has seen something upsetting online.
Creating, reviewing and adapting expectations
Making a Family Agreement can be a great way to talk about and set expectations and limits on screen time for your children.
You can have discussions about what limits you will be following, why these limits are important, how you can help each other stick to them, and even introduce consequences for if your limits are not followed.
The Family Agreement template also has prompt questions to help start those conversations.
Once these expectations and limits are set, it is important to review and change these regularly as your children get older, as they may want more independence and their online habits might change. This is also important if you have children of different ages, as they will have different needs to consider. Older children may feel restricted if they have the same expectations as younger siblings.
Top tips from families
At Childnet, we spend lots of times in schools working with children, parents, carers, and staff. Here, we have put together a list of the top tips about managing screen time.
- Give young people time warnings before asking them to come off of games. Some games cannot be saved until certain points are reached or rely on players working together as a team, meaning your child may feel like they are letting people down by leaving suddenly.
- Talk to your children about the games and apps they are using and how they work. Research and decide on a best way to communicate that their time online is coming to an end. Our Parents and Carers Resource Sheet has lots of websites to help you with this.
- Model positive use of technology by following the expectations you set for your family, and discussing why they are important.
- Make use of wellbeing settings, like screen time limits, ‘do not disturb’ functions and disabling autoplay on apps like Youtube and Netflix.
