Tips for reducing 'screen' time
Watching television or playing an Xbox can keep children active for hours and is a great baby sitter for busy parents. There are benefits from increased technology in our lives but parents need to be aware of the amount of time their children spend using screen based activities. Below are some tips to help monitor your children's screen time.
Children between the ages of 5 and 12 should only spend a maximum of 2 hours a day using screen based technology.
Mobile Phones
Computers and the Internet
Tips:
• Don’t make TV the centre of your life by placing it as the focal point of the lounge room. If possible, create a comfortable and friendly TV-free family area and use it.
• Minimize the influence of TV in the home. Do not put a TV or computer in your child's bedroom. This tends to physically isolate family members and decrease interaction. Also, children who have TVs in their room tend to spend almost 1 1/2 hours more in a typical day watching TV than their peers without a set in their room.
• Set a good example. You need to be a good role model and also limit your screen time to no more than two hours per day. If your kids see you following your own rules, then they will be more likely to follow. Instead of watching TV or surfing the Internet, spend time with your family doing something fun and active.
• Set limits on screen time. Set a house rule that your children may spend no more than two hours a day of screen time. More importantly, enforce the rule once it's made.
• Work out a TV viewing schedule with your children and become involved in their program choices.
• Check program classifications in your TV guide and choose age appropriate programs for your children to view.
• Watch TV with your children and seek feedback by talking to them about what they have seen.
• If you’re not sure what’s on TV and you can’t supervise your children’s viewing, videotapes or DVDs of age appropriate programs can be good.
• Don't use TV to reward or punish a child. Practices like this make TV seem even more important to children.
• Make meal time, family time. Turn off the TV during family meal time. Better yet, remove the TV from the eating area if you have one there. Family meals are a good time to talk to each other. Research has shown that families who eat together tend to eat more nutritious meals than families who eat separately. Make eating together a priority and schedule family meals at least two to three times a week.
• Make screen time, active time. Stretch, do yoga, lift hand weights while watching TV; challenge the family to see who can do the most push-ups, jumping jacks, or leg lifts during commercial breaks, or switch to an exercise tape during commercials.
•Have a list of alternative activities (indoor and outdoor activities) on the fridge. Such as walking the dog, drawing, using crafts, playing a board game, gardening, cooking or creating an obstacle course. View our list of activities.
•Give gifts that encourage children to be more active. The gifts we give children can have a huge impact on what they do in their spare time. Encourage your children to be more active by giving gifts such as bikes, frisbees, skipping ropes, cricket sets, boogie boards, kites, or passes to local swimming pools or bowling alleys.
Mobile phones are becoming more popular with children. The Australian Communications and Media Authority, in collaboration with the children’s internet charity, Childnet International, have produced a website to assist parents protect their children and make sure they get the most out of using their mobile phone safely. Visit www.acma.gov.au/mobilesforkids for more information.
Computers are a great learning tool for children. Too much time spent on the computer impact their health and lead to poor posture, eyesight deterioration, repetitive strain injury and sleep deprivation if use is extended into normal sleep time. It can also impact on their development of social skills. It can be difficult to monitor what children are looking at on the internet. The dangers of internet surfing can include stranger danger (through online chat rooms), credit card fraud, bullying, exposure to adult material or violent games.
•Talk to your children about the benefits and risks of the internet and encourage them to communicate with you if there is something that makes them feel uncomfortable.
•Set house rules about what information they can give out to people over the internet and what sites they can visit.
•To monitor access, put the internet computer in a public area of the home, such as the living room instead of in their bedroom.
•Use software such as Net Nanny or filters to restrict access to unwanted sites.
•Visit http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/ for more information on safely using the internet.
