Screen Time

Evidence suggests that if a child spends a lot of time on screens during childhood it can affect many important aspects of their life. Things like sleep, obesity, behaviour, and learning can all be impacted.

However, screens are part of family life now. They are used for staying connected, for entertainment and even for school and schoolwork.

What is important though, is that screens don’t overtake family life or prevent us from being physically active during the day.

Download the Parent Power booklet for some top screen tips for parents.

Webwise

A great Irish website with lots of information and support for parents. This is the link to their parent’s hub.

Apps to monitor and limit screen use

Google’s Family Link is a popular Android app that lets you set digital ground rules.

Apple’s Screen Time is in iOS under settings.

There are lots of other free and paid apps that offer different ways to help you and your child monitor screen time and online etiquette. There are some good articles and videos online about them. Also, look at the WebWise download “Parents’ Guide to A Better Internet”

Videos

Screen Time Tutorial Parental Controls for Apple products

Google Family Link Tutorial Parental Controls for Android

Being Safe on the Internet A great video for kids on online safety

Books

The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place by Andy Crouch. Available in bookshops and online. The Amazon link is here.

Raising Humans in a Digital World: Helping Kids Build a Healthy Relationship with Technology by Diana Graber. Available in bookshops and online. The Amazon link is here.

Got any recommendations? Let us know and we’ll add the links.

Top Tips from other parents

“Parental controls are great! You can limit the time the device is on and it turns off automatically when the time is up. It's a different PIN from the one they have.”

“20min outside playing or doing chores after 20min online.”

“When on kids sites let them use headphones, but if gaming, chatting or surfing they must use the speakers so you can hear what they're doing.”

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child's success is the positive involvement of parents”

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