Helping my child reduce their screen use
When trying to decrease the number of leisure hours our child spends in front of screens, a complete ban is not the key, but a clear framework is essential. There are several ways to proceed to get a more positive reaction, collaboration from our teen, and more sustainable results.
In collaboration with PAUSE.
To remember
👉 Screen prohibition is ineffective; a clear and collaborative framework is preferable.
👉 Excessive screen use depends on the individual, even if 2 hours/day is a general recommendation.
👉 Involve the young person in discussion and goal-setting for a sustainable reduction in screen time.
When a young person spends a lot of time on their screens, we can speak of excessive use. But what do we mean by "a lot"? It's difficult to settle on a precise number of daily hours, as different variables come into play: the young person's age, their interests (video games, for example), access or not to social media, close relatives living far away, etc.
💡The daily recommendations are a maximum of 2 hours of leisure screen time per day.
Many parents will choose to end this problem simply by removing the video game console, cell phone, or by denying their child Internet access. Most of the time, this choice will provoke a negative reaction from the teen, will unfortunately have very little influence on their subsequent use, and will harm communication with your child.
What is forbidden can sometimes be tempting, so it is better to solicit their motivation so that the desire to reduce screen time comes from our young person themselves.
To do this, it is important to:
Take an interest in our teen, their interests, passions, occupations, but also their strengths and challenges, to recognize their successes and what defines them.
Discuss with our child their motivations and online activities, but also what they gain from them. The parent will then obtain several pieces of information that will allow them to better understand their teen's behavior and thus find solutions.
Address the question of the number of hours spent in front of a screen clearly so that our child becomes aware of their usage. For example: ask them to check the "screen time" function on their cell phone or, to go further, fill out a table indicating the number of hours spent online. Our teen might be surprised by the high number of hours and wish to change their own behavior.
Remember that a young person's behavior does not change instantly. The parent must help their teen set realistic goals, value progress, and, if necessary, direct them to resources that can help them.
Reach an agreement with our child by asking them to find a reasonable limit based on the number of hours spent in front of a screen. Reducing your teen's screen time is good, but establishing a broader family screen use agreement that also involves the parent is even better.
