Healthy Screen Time Habits
Managing children’s screen time appropriately during the day and increasingly, after bedtime is an ongoing concern for many parents. The experts at Digital Awareness UK share their recent research and advice on this topic.
As the UK’s leading social media safety organisation, we at Digital Awareness UK regularly speak to parents about how their children can survive and thrive online. We are faced with all sorts of questions about digital parenting – from “what age should I buy my son his first mobile phone?” to “is it ok for my daughter to be posting selfies on Instagram at the age of 10?”
But by far, the most common questions we now face involve the buzz word ‘screen time’. Issues around the amount of time young people are staring at digital screens, have spread through the media like wildfire; leaving parents questioning how much time their children should be spending on digital devices throughout the day.
Health implications related to excessive device usage are rumored to include sight deterioration, posture issues, repetitive strain injury, headaches, lack of sleep due to blue light exposure; not to mention the emotional toll this takes on young people, who are often obsessively checking devices as a result of: cyberbullying, FOMO (fear of missing out) and many other tech-related problems.
We’re on the ground in schools every day speaking to students about the relationship they have with technology. Are they are in control of their tech? or does their tech controls them? The insights we have following these debates inspired us to launch a survey in partnership with HMC (the Headmasters’ & Headmistresses’ Conference) which uncovered the impact mobile device usage is having on young people at bed time. The results were truly eye-opening.
After questioning 2,750 students aged 11-18 we discovered: almost half (45%) admit they check their mobile device after going to bed, with 23% checking their devices more than 10 times a night and 25% spending over an hour on their devices after going to bed. As suspected social media is the main culprit with 94% of students citing Instagram, Snapchat etc taking up much of their screen time.
This really shows the extent to which technology is impacting on their sleep. But what else? Well surprisingly 68% of students said that mobile device usage at night affects their school work and a quarter admitted they feel tired during the day because of how often they use their device at night.
So now we know that excessive screen time is definitely not conducive to a good night’s sleep or optimum performance at school. But the vast majority of us know that the benefits technology adds to our lives often outweigh the negatives. It’s about finding that healthy balance and ensuring our children can enjoy using technology safely and responsibly, and have good digital awareness when it comes to subjects like screen time.
Our survey found that 32% of parents aren’t aware of how much their children are using mobile devices at night, so make sure you set the boundaries with them early doors so they get into good habits before bad habits are too hard to break.
If you are interested in finding out more about how your children can manage their screen time at night, we have lots of top tips at www.digitalawarenessuk.com
Digital Awareness UK is an online safety organisation with a team of tech experts including YouTubers, hackers, bloggers and coders who use their knowledge to educate young people, parents and teachers on how to survive and thrive on social media. They run workshops, CPD and parent events tackling today's biggest trends - from netiquette to sexting. For more information visit www.digitalawarenessuk.com or contact us at info@digitalawarenessuk.com
Originally Released On 10 November 2016