Top screen time parenting rule for kids
Many parents are struggling with the idea of accessing their children to smartphones or other connected devices. How old should they be when they buy their first phones or tablets? If so, which parent checks should you use?
No matter what you decide, psychologist Jean Twenge should follow a “compulsory” rule to help your children happy, successful adults: “There is no electronic device in the bedroom overnight.”
“This is just a kind, no argument: ‘When you need to sleep, you don’t need that phone in your bedroom. The period. The end of the story. Microphone drop.10 rules for raising children in a world with high -tech“It was released on 2 September.
Twenge warned most of the last decade of the risks of providing unlimited access to smartphones and social media to young adolescents, young adolescents. Founded research Connect their use to higher mental health problems in young people, including anxiety and depression.
Some other parents’ and medical experts issued similar warnings: in 2023, at the time-US surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a counsel warning that social media and connected device risks help to create a “national youth mental health crisis”.
In his Twenge book, he argues that parents wait as long as possible before delivering smartphones to their children or allowing them on social media platforms. It is expected that children will participate in social media until the age of 16 and “travel independently” to their own smartphones until they have a driver license.
However, it is the rule number 1 due to the potential to prohibit devices from children’s rooms overnight and the potential to improve sleeping habits. To do this “is absolutely important for both physical and mental health”, in his book.
“In this book, if you have a bandwidth to follow only one rule in this book, do this.” “No device in the bedroom overnight is very simple and has no cost.”
‘A risk factor not to sleep enough’
The devices in the bedrooms can be easily cut to sleep time, whether they close their eyes to continue to slide on social media, whether the sounds of the notifications continue to wake them. Research shows.
More than two -thirds of the adolescents participating in the survey With common sense media 2023 reported that “sometimes” or “usually” is missing in sleep due to the use of telephone or other devices in bedrooms late at night. In general, 77% of young people receive inadequate sleep, According to data USA from disease control and prevention centers.
In his book, Twenge, “Not to sleep adequately, is a risk factor for almost everything that we want our children to avoid being ill.”
Looking at the screens in the bed depends on higher mental and physical health problems for adults. However, healthy sleeping habits are even more important for children because their brains are still developing. Sleep, Cognitive Development and Mental HealthIncluding their feelings to learn and regulate their emotions – the features that they need to develop to grow and become happy, healthy and successful adults.
“If you just do something, [this rule] It can make the biggest difference, “Twenge says.
Be honest but solid
Young people who use their smartphones and other devices regularly at any time of the day, especially at any time of the day, will be met with resistance from children. Authorized, you can easily implement and apply such policies to your children at an early age.
Twenge suggests that solid rules are needed around the dangers and uses of smartphones – suggesting to speak from primary school as soon as possible. “Children get these devices younger and younger” and your child may have friends who already use connected devices at that age.
The parents of older children can also set new, more strict rules. Initially, after letting them use their laptops overnight, this is what Twenge did with his three young girls. It is not easy to establish strict rules backwards, “The first few days can be difficult and you can get some scum doors.”
His advice is to be transparent but solid about your decision process. “You must be honest with your child [and say]’Look, I made a mistake. Now I know more, I’ve learned more and we’ll do it in a different way, ” says Twenge.
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