Healthy screen-time for children
Recommended screen time depends on the child’s age.
Children under 2 years:
- Little to no screen time
- Screentime only with an adult present (example: video-chatting family members)
Co-viewing is encouraged so parents can develop a relationship with the child over their content experiences, and understand the internet culture of their times.
2 to 5 year-old children:
- One hour or less per day
- Interactive, non-violent, and educational content
- Must be co-viewed or supervised.
Help them develop physical hobbies, and encourage activities that require creating using hands. Eg. building blocks, colouring, play-dough, etc.
5 to 18 year-old children and adolescents:
- Under 2 hours of recreational screen time. That is outside of online learning time
- Strong parental controls advised. Example: Co-sharing devices, Setting parental control through parents’ accounts. Monitoring what they watch. Setting time-limits on devices as well as Wifi
- Co-viewing routines where parents ask and learn about children’s content, and what about those content interests them
- Have open, non-judgemental, non-confrontational conversations around risky content, cybersecurity, and online behaviour
Stalked by ads?
100 likes/clicks is all it takes for a platform to understand your basic 5 personality traits.
150 likes/clicks are enough for platforms to know you as well as your partner.
300 likes/clicks are all it takes to know you better than yourself.
– Gloria Mark
Human-computer interaction expert.
University of California
Designed to addict
- Seductive interface
- Red alerts
- Autoplay
- Clickbait
- Infinite scroll
- Intermittent variable rewards
- Notifications that fuel FOMO
- Trends and challenges
- Filtered perfection
- Social validation
- Gaming micro-transactions
and many more engagement mechanics developed using Behaviour Science and Psychology, that make you constantly reach out for, and keep using your smart device.
“The impulse to check a message notification, the pull to visit YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter for just a few minutes, only to find yourself still tapping and scrolling an hour later. None of this is an accident. It is all just as their designers intended.”
– Nir Eyal, Author of ‘Hooked’