Children and adolescents grow today with digital media on such course, making the age- and development-oriented media selection really complex for parents. It becomes even more difficult in the converged digital age where all can be acceded from one platform. To help parents, here are some tips they can use to manage digital media consumption of kids:
Select age appropriate equipment: Consider the experts’ recommendation which goes by saying that you should not give your child a private phone before the age of 9.
Accompaniment especially in the beginning: The handling of digital devices and the Internet must be taught. Tell your kids how they can find what they are looking for? What pages can they trust? Where can they get information from? By teaching this all, you are helping your child to learn safe handling of media. For younger children, parental controls like FamilyTime, Norton Family and Life360 can help a lot. Which makes it handy for parents to keep a check on what their kids are up to.
Privacy is important: Convey to your child that they should be careful when sharing personal information. Ask them not to publish embarrassing pictures or send any photos to others online.
Set secure mobile settings: Check the mobile phone settings and set appropriate settings such as disabling non-adult sites and chargeable value-added numbers. In order not to accidentally fall into cost traps, it is also convenient to regularly check the phone bill.
Help with negative experiences: If your kid is confronted with disturbing images or experiences such as bullying, pornography, violence, they need someone who is there for them and can possibly help them get out of it. Be that person for your kid.
Media Times: Set media times as it makes sense to combine temporal regulations. For younger children, setting an alarm or an egg timer can be a good idea. With older children and adolescents, a total weekly media time can be agreed that they can divide on their own freely. It is recommended that, 3 – 6 years old kid should not consume media for more than 30 minutes a day for 6- to 10-year-old it should not be longer than 45 minutes and for 10 to 13-year- the time should not exceed 60 minutes a day.
Set Cell-free periods: Do not let your kid use technology at certain time durations such as meal time, study hours or during the night. To set the auto screen locks, you can make use of screen time apps that make the job easy for you.
Linda says
March 2, 2018 at 6:07 amI like this article. When we buy our kids mobile phones, we know that it is necessary to prevent them from the harmful impact of the internet. My kids like to watch videos on YouTube and play video games ;( . The parental control app is a must nowadays. I liked what Kidslox offer and I see that it works well for me. It provides so many features which I can use to monitor my kids’ activity on the mobile phones.
Yulia says
November 14, 2017 at 3:02 pmThanks for the article. My younger is not 9 yet, but he has his own Ipad for cartoons and games. It is very difficult not to give them device till 9, as all the kids now have them :(((
We are also using parental control app, but it is called Kidslox. And like it is mentioned here, we adjust it to the age. The younger one is allowed only certain apps and has limits in time (no internet searching is allowed at all). And with my elder one we additionally use content blocking ( I like that I can block all the dangerous websites) and Schedules for her school, homework etc.