Healthy digital habits are essential for children year-round, especially during the summer break. Children often get bored without school activities, and online devices are incredibly tempting boredom busters.
Unhealthy online habits have been linked to a range of problems, including eyestrain, lack of physical exercise, and weight gain. The impact of the Internet on mental health is also a concern—depression, self-esteem issues, and anxiety, for instance, are associated with excessive social media use.
Does this mean children shouldn’t be online? Not at all: the internet is an important part of modern life. Instead, parents can teach children healthy digital habits that balance online and offline activities while protecting against the negative aspects of online life. Here are some strategies to ensure your family uses online devices safely and appropriately.
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Setting Boundaries and Limits
How much time spent online is too much? There’s no correct answer for this, as it depends partly on what your child is doing online. Certainly, time spent playing video games, consuming social media, and watching videos should be limited, but what about time spent communicating with friends and family, studying, or finding more information about personal interests and hobbies? Not all screen time is equal.
Rather than set a firm time limit on overall screen time, it’s better to set limits on individual activities. For instance, you might restrict a child’s gaming to an hour or two a day, but be more forgiving about time limits if they’re video-chatting with grandparents. Keep this in mind as you set online limits.
Communication is vital when setting online limits. Sit the kids down and explain why it’s important to have healthy digital habits, and discuss the following with them:
- What types of online activity are appropriate?
- What tech-free activities take precedence over online activities, including chores, clubs, and family events?
- When do you expect children to be off their devices, such as mealtimes and bedtime?
- What are the consequences of ignoring digital rules?
Have regular, age-appropriate chats about digital activities so you can share information and funny stories and discuss difficult or unpleasant experiences related to online life. Problems you encounter online can become instructive stories for kids and make them more likely to share their own concerns if they have any.
Promoting Educational and Productive Use
The internet is a fantastic resource for education. Whether you need help with an algebra problem, want to learn a new hobby, or are planning dinner, the information you need is online. Kid-friendly educational apps and websites include the following:
- Duolingo: An app that uses bright, kid-friendly graphics and gameplay to teach languages.
- Google Arts and Culture: A global collection of often interactive online exhibits.
- Explore.org: A collection of global wildlife webcams.
- Khan Academy: A collection of courses and educational resources for students of all ages.
- NASA Kids Club: An interactive website that promotes STEM for K-12 students.
- YouTube: The video site offers many how-tos for hobbies, studies, and skills.
Not every online source can be trusted. Healthy digital habits include critical thinking skills, so teaching kids about misinformation and identifying trustworthy sources is important. Younger kids should always ask a parent if a website is appropriate, while older children can be taught basic media literacy.
Ensuring Online Safety
Teaching kids how to be safe online is extremely important for their physical and mental safety. How you approach this will depend on the age of your child. For instance, you can have a frank discussion about online safety with teens, while younger kids may only need to be told some simple safety rules. At a minimum, your online safety rules should include:
- How to recognize and report cyberbullying.
- Never share sensitive personal information online, including phone numbers, home addresses, birth dates, or location.
- Tell a parent or guardian if someone you met online wants to meet in real life. Explain that some people are not who they claim to be.
- Never share a device, social media, or app password with anyone, including best friends.
- Always check with a parent or guardian before downloading anything onto your device.
- If anything online makes you uncomfortable, immediately tell a parent or guardian.
Encouraging Physical Activity and Offline Interests
Even kids understand the importance of spending time offline—the expression “touch grass” almost definitely originated with a teen telling someone online they needed to get off their device and out into the real world. Explain to your children that online activities must be balanced with offline interests like reading, playing sports, playing outside, and pursuing hobbies. This is a great opportunity to ask kids about their interests and what they’d like to do—you may discover new and exciting things to do together.
Thanks to the internet, it’s easy to find offline activities in your area, including local events, festivals, and clubs. Using devices this way teaches kids that the internet is a tool that can make their offline lives more interesting, exciting, and educational.
Involving Parents and Caregivers
Children watch the adults around them even when they’re using online devices. If you’re not practicing healthy digital habits, your children will quickly pick up on that, and enforcing online rules will be more difficult. The opposite is also true—by modeling healthy internet habits, you’re leading by example. Understand that proper internet access, including checking the speed and quality of your connection, is part of a parent’s responsibility.
Pay special attention to your child’s digital habits during the summer, when their schedule changes significantly. By providing a balanced approach to family screen time and offline activities, you’re laying the foundation for a lifetime of healthy attitudes towards electronic devices and safe internet use.