My kids are 7 and 9. We do unlimited screen time. There is some reasoning behind it: (1) they are both autistic and it helps them form language and some limited reading; (2) we need parenting breaks; (3) video games help with fine motor (an issue with one of the kids); and (4) we keep them focused on educational content. Probably not the best parenting out there but we are just trying to survive. 🙂
1 hour each of TV time and game time, per day, 3 hours on non-school days.
TV consists of YouTube Kids, Disney Kids, Hulu Kids, or our own Plex library.
Game time consists of pretty much just the Nintendo Switch. Occasionally, he’ll play Steam games, but together with me or my wife.
He gets unlimited time with his Kindle.
When my kids were younger I monitored their usage and restricted their access. As they earned trust this eased up. Now that they are teens they are mostly free to do what they want. I will still ask what they use their phones for and we have frank conversations about it, but I will not invade their privacy unless there is a good reason.
It’s not perfect but what we have now is unlimited time on the Switch for Minecraft, 1 hour YouTube kids. He has to read a book to earn more YouTube. No current limit on movies since YouTube is the main problem with screen time.
I mostly automate it: Their phone won’t function after bedtime (except for emergency use like calling 911), their devices cannot connect to the network until morning, and physical access is restricted unless it’s the appropriate time.
How are you automating the wifi shutting of during specific hours? This is something I’d like to implement
The wifi itself isn’t shutting off, it’s just blocking certain computers and if they are smart enough to manually change their MAC address, you would need to revert to controls local to their machines, but on my home router, it’s a standard feature: I just logged into the local DNS web app for managing the router and added the MAC addresses.
For local device management, it varies depending on the device but broadly speaking there are usually built in parental controls for most Microsoft/Android/Apple devices: It’s just a matter of configuring them.
That said, a low-tech solution to this if you didn’t care if your network went down would be to either manually turn it off or attach it to a timer to automatically shut it off. I don’t go this route because I still want Internet after bedtime and sometimes do overnight downloads/updates.
Gotcha, yeah that makes sense. I have a google wifi mesh and I’m sure it has some features like that I can set up. Thanks!
I don’t have kids of my own, but whenever I let other people’s kids use my phone I block access to all apps except the ones I pick and have a screen time limit if they’re young, if they’re above 10/ mature enough, I don’t limit their usage at all and just trust them to not abuse my trust.
I’ve no kids of my own. This is mostly about my experience. I grew up with tv, internet, and video games. I used to have a portable screen that played dvds and a music cd player. I grew up watching cartoons on satellite then cable TV. I played on the ps1, ps2, PS3, and psp. I surfed the web on desktop computers, my folks used to have an old Compaq then later an HP Pavillion. I didn’t have an actual smartphone till mid way through middle school. My folks limited my screen time.
My little brother on the other hand has been glued to his tablet since age 3. My folks limit his time, but his tablet is all he’s ever known and he’s inseparable from it. I didn’t really start getting sucked into tech and screens till age 10 when I got my first PS3 and even then I was pretty well rounded.
They don’t have tablets. My oldest has my old phone with everything blocked except a GBA emulator, music, and some educational games recommended by their teachers. They have a couple switch lites and we have one TV with Disney+, Netflix, and Youtube. I set up Youtube Kids profiles for them with whitelists so they can only watch channels I have specifically chosen for them. I don’t limit screen time, though. They don’t actually spend that much time watching TV or playing video games, and I’m pretty much always there with them when they do so I can talk with them about what they are watching or playing. I know it’s not the same for every kid but mine really don’t get sucked into screens. I’ve never been strict about it, even when they were babies. They usually can’t even finish a movie without getting bored and going to play outside or with actual toys.
We all have adhd so I thought screens would be a bigger challenge. I guess I got lucky.
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