Balancing screen time

• 36% play games online for nearly 6 hours a week
• 69% use tablets to go online
• 8 out of 10 of 3-4s who use YouTube watch cartoons and funny videos
• 52% are online almost 9 hours a week

Source: Ofcom children and parents media use and attitudes 2018

Screen time benefits

• Screen use provides a range of opportunities for creativity and learning – 70% of parents strongly agree that using devices is essential for their child’s development – Source: Internet Matters Look both ways report.
• Screens can be a great tool to allow children to maintain relationships with family and friends.
• For low-income households, screens can help ease the burden when looking to entertain children.

Screen time challenges

• Young children might stumble across inappropriate content that may have a negative impact on their digital wellbeing.
• Passive screen time could have a physical effect on their development (i.e. eyes, brain), sleep cycle and behaviour.
• Younger children may not understand the concept of what the internet is and how it works so could find it hard to differentiate between what is real and what is fake.

• Establish a family agreement together to manage expectations of how screens and online platforms should be used and why.
• Set rules to meet the needs of each child based on their use, interest, and engagement of screens and consider how screen time can complement what they do offline.
• Make sure to stick to the rules and model the behaviour you’d like to follow to make it a success. It’s a good idea to review the rules as children grow and become more active online.
• For younger children, it’s important to prioritise face-to-face interactions and apps that encourage active play to support their development of language and other skills.

By creating device free zone at meal times and around the home and making use of tools to set limits on when screens can be used, you can improve family interactions and reduce interruptions to children’s bedtime routine.

Experts recommend switching off screens at least an hour before bedtime to give young children time to wind down.

As young children take their first digital footsteps, play, watch and discover together to stay engaged in what they are doing and create spaces to talk about what they enjoy and how to stay safe.

This will help them feel more confident in coming to you if they get stuck or see something that makes them feel uncomfortable. It’s also important to stay calm and not overreact when children tell you what has gone wrong.

Together find age-appropriate apps, websites and games that will give your child a way to explore their passions, enhance their skills while building their confidence in navigating the online world.

Be sure to make use of free tech tools on the apps and devices they use to create a safer space for them to explore online.

Tools like Apple’s Screen time and Google’s Digital Wellbeing dashboard can give you an overview of what they are spending their time on which you can use as a starting point to talk about ways to improve their screen use and protect their digital wellbeing.

Children will tend to model their behaviour on you, so if you encourage them to take breaks when on screen or leave phones out of the bedroom at night, they will follow your lead.

Often a sign that a child is spending too much time on screens is when they may feel anxiety or stress if they are disconnected or separated from their phone.

Lack of sleep and exercise and no willingness to visit friends may be a sign they need to take a break from their device.

Not all screen time is created equal so it’s important to encourage children to have a healthy balance between passive screen time (i.e watching YouTube) and interactive screen time (i.e. creating content or playing games online).

There is no safe level of screen time but it doesn’t mean that all screen time is harmful. Lack of evidence has meant that experts have found it hard to recommend a cut-off for children screen time overall.

One size does not fit all when it comes to screen time – it’s more about getting it right for your families needs.