Screen time. How on earth can you strike a balance for screen-addicted kids? A ReadItTorial

Once again we turn to a familiar subject for this week's ReadItTorial, a subject that crops up again and again. This week the subject of screen time came up again in an article referenced by The Telegraph: telegraph.co.uk/family/parenti…

For a number of years now, studies have begun to suggest that there's a direct correlation between the amount of time kids spend staring at screens (in any form, whether excessive TV watching, phone use, tablet use or videogames) and their ability to develop and sustain a continued focus on a non-screen task (particularly non-screen-based reading of books, for example).

After a recent suggestion from a family member that my wife and I are probably too strict on C when it comes to screen time, we wondered just how widespread and accepted the use of screen time as a 'treat' or as a method of allowing kids to wind down at the end of a hectic homework schedule actually is.

C does not have her own phone (though she's probably one of the few kids in her class that doesn't have one), she does not have access to a tablet but is allowed to watch TV if there's time, and also allowed to play videogames (again if there's time, and she's really stuck for something to do - which she rarely is).

For us, homework is actually more of an issue than screentime - and despite the school's guidelines that children should spend no more than 45 minutes on their homework each evening, 45 minutes is nowhere near enough time when - for example - the homework involves any sort of creative process, or perhaps a lot of research / bookwork / internet research in order to complete the task.

The allure of screentime is undeniable though, and we know full well that if we allowed C more of it, it would definitely start to eat into the time she spends reading for pleasure, or playing (remember when kids used to do that? Seems like a couple of generations ago, right?) As an only child she demands and gets more of our time than perhaps kids with siblings do (particularly siblings nearer their age or that share interests).

The question is, how do you strike a balance? What's actually fair? A recent Time Magazine article seemed to suggest that kids below the age of 12 should be limited to around an hour a day of screen time, incorporating most of the forms of screen time we described above. To C, an hour a day would seem almost luxuriously indulgent - so are we being too strict?

Many parents are concerned about the effect curtailing their kids' screen time has on them. They might throw a tantrum. They may become angry - sometimes even violent or abusive. Quite often we've read about cases where kids have reacted in this way when parents have taken steps to abruptly cut down on the amount of screen time or kids' access to the internet / videogames - sometimes going as far as seeking external help from organisations or individuals who set themselves up almost like drying-out clinics. Screen / videogame addiction is now officially recognised by the The World Health Organization which now includes "gaming disorder" within the 11th revision of its International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (as of June 2018).

As we struggle to find easy ways to achieve a balance in a busy school week (though, thankfully, we've never had a problem convincing C about reading for pleasure, thankfully that has come from always being read to, reading herself, and having a ready supply of books either through the libraries or through the blog) there are at least plenty of ways to ensure that once we have to cross the rickety bridge of letting her loose on the internet, we can set some measures in place to try and offset unreasonable amounts of time spent instagramming, snapchatting or whatever else kids get into as soon as their hit their teens.

Most videogame consoles have pretty sophisticated parental controls that allow you to set up a timetable for screen time (The Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PS4 all have similar methods of allowing parents to create usage profiles to nip excessive screentime in the bud - google and you'll find a whole plethora of info on how to set this up easily)

All internet service providers allow similar controls on broadband routers - which can be set up per-device, ensuring that again the internet is only available to those devices at certain times. Once kids are old enough, it's up to parents to discuss and sensibly set these parameters.

Finally, when it comes to online purchases and other videogame-related behaviour, again most consoles will allow parental confirmation of purchases made under a child's profile, with the parent having the final say on whether the purchase is made or not.

So there are plenty of non-draconian things we can all do to help achieve the right balance.

There's always the 'lead by example' model too, and I must once again admit that this is an area where we could buck our ideas up as parents. All too often we find ourselves listlessly scrolling through our social media feeds when we could be doing other things. I myself usually end up in front of a screen once C has gone to bed but we always try to ensure that we balance those week night / school night patterns of behaviour with just getting the heck out of the house at weekends or during holidays / annual leave. I think we'd go completely screwy if we didn't.

Studies should incorporate and take into account that all children are different, however, and the current 'one size fits all' behavioural modelling and recommendations won't always fit one kid as well as they'll fit the next and that goes double for encouraging kids to become lifelong leisure-readers. As much as we constantly see calls for schools to do more to encourage reading for pleasure, the real beginning of that must absolutely start with us parents ourselves.