Taking Control of Your Child’s Screen Time

With every passing year our children are exposed to more apps, game systems and devices. As a parent it’s hard to keep up, and even harder to know how to monitor and limit screen time.

So what’s the best approach – to turn off the WiFi or pay for an app that let’s you control their device?

Every parent seems to have a different view of how to deal with screen time, but one thing parents have in common is that our children’s lives are world’s apart from our own when we were kids, and so knowing the correct course of action can feel daunting. It’s a technological minefield.

However, there are some things we can all do to make sure our children aren’t on their devices too much and that they look up from their screens to actually look at what’s going on around them.

Most iPads, iPhones, Playstation, Xbox and handheld Android devices have settings to enable you to limit their use, this can be even more of a consideration in the school holidays when they seem to be on their screens constantly. Let’s face it, it’s easy to let them sit and quietly play on their devices, but we need to consider the effects.

At present there are no official guidelines as to what constitutes a healthy amount of screen time, and there hasn’t been any solid research carried out into the long term effects, so it’s down to you to set your own boundaries.

iOS Features

The recent version of Apple’s operating system (iOS 120) aims to make the process a lot easier. Among the new features is ‘Screen Time’. This allows parents to have more control over when their children use their devices and what content they have access to. They have previously been able to set restrictions which limits adult content within video, games, apps and music and stops children from making in-app purchases, but it has not been able to set screen times. It will even report on how many times a day a child uses their iPhone or iPad and how long they spend using their various apps so you can monitor what they are doing.

Play Station and Xbox

These both give you the ability to set timers on a daily or weekly basis, so it’s up to you what limits you impose. You’ll be able to turn this on and off with a master code, and set up a parent account to prevent your children having access to inappropriate content.

Set ‘No-Tech’ times

The settings in the new Screen Time feature allows you to set times when children can’t use their apps such as at bedtime or when they haven’t completed homework! Tech-free periods are called Downtimes and it allows you to restrict your child’s access to all the apps on their device, except for the Settings and Clock, Wallet, Phone and Find My iPhone apps. There’s also an ‘Always Allowed’ section where you can specify which apps they can always access.

Your child can also send you requests to extend their screen time which you can choose not either approve or reject their request.

Limit the use of certain apps

In addition to these settings, you can also limit your child’s daily use of certain types of app, such as social networking apps like Snapchat and Instagram. Once they’ve used up their time allocation for a type of app, they will see a message on-screen telling them that they have run out of time.

When an app is out of bounds, its icon is greyed out. If your child taps on it, they’ll see a message telling them they’ve reached their time limit for that app for that day.

There are also apps available such as Our Pact which allow you to turn off the apps and access to the Internet at any given time. So if you are on the receiving end of a bit of cheek….just one button can make them incredibly remorseful for their behavior!

The great news is that there is help at hand, you just need to stay one step ahead of your kids and wise up to the apps and features that will let you stay in control.

Clyde Property is a leading independent, multiple award-winning estate agent with over 30 years’ experience in selling and letting property in Scotland. Just call your local Clyde Property branch today, for friendly, impartial advice on letting and renting property.