School soon begins again, with parents swapping fights over video games and mobile phones, playing the fight over academics, video games and mobile phones. It’s not the ideal world we created for ourselves, but there’s no need to do this.
Finding ways to reduce screen time is undoubtedly a young brain health intervention. Last year, the US surgeon general called on social media platforms to include health warnings aimed at children, and smartphone use has been known to invade sleep.
I have three teenage boys in my house – well, one is 11 years old, but he is fiercely trying to catch up with his siblings – there are lessons I have learned to minimize their screen time. These tactics are not always successful and require constant vigilance. But when you see one child doing origami while waiting, you see another working on his art project, and the other competing in three different sports rather than two, you feel it is worth it. Not only is it tiring, it’s worth it.
Find out about routers
It’s not uncommon for people to get their routers, set up Wi-Fi and never see them again. However, parents should consider the router as an untapped resource when it comes to limiting screen time. The new router has built-in features that allow you to identify and label individual devices that have been logged in. For example, the Spectrum I used in the past provides the ability to look at each device, match the device’s IP address in the router settings, and freely turn off wireless connections.
If your internet provider does not offer this feature, you can proceed with additional steps to configure a wireless mesh network. These devices use routers as sources to extend Wi-Fi reach over the second network, creating chokepoints for all connected devices. The $100 decomash network I use has parental features in the accompanying app, allowing you to group multiple devices under each child’s name and turn off internet access to multiple devices at once.
Then, spend a minute changing your password while you are in the router settings. It’s a step that many people don’t take, and it’s a small thing to further pinpoint your home, especially if multiple smart devices are tapping Wi-Fi.
Stick to the old phone
There’s a movement towards “silly phones” and cell phones, but some of these can cost hundreds of dollars. I can’t imagine what my reaction would be if one of my kids lost it.
So, when it was time to hand it over to my eldest son (now 15), who is a smartphone, he fell over my hand, also known as the first generation iPhone SE, OGSE. It’s a small thing in his big hands and you can’t download the latest app. However, you can make calls, text, and access the internet through your browser.
It wasn’t his first phone – his first phone was a 4G Nokia 225, a bar phone with the mobile game “Snake”. I later served using Mint Mobile on Redpocket’s 10GB per month plan. This route required more effort and perhaps less cost-effective than adding him to the family’s mobile phone plan. Sometimes the text took me forever to send and the call didn’t go through. But the goal is to teach him to use the phone only to call and use it in text messages, and if that is absolutely necessary, he will introduce the internet with his very slow browser. It was only $50, but he hasn’t let him live that he lost it after only a year of use.
And yes, his brother received the same second-hand Nokia, but lost his phone about a year later. He is enrolled in his high school freshman year, so all of our kids’ mobile phones go into different hands. The middle child gets an OGSE, and the oldest one gets my husband’s older mobile phone, iPhone XR, and even a slightly larger phone plan to meet the increasing demands of his academic and athletic pursuits. He is a conscientious student, a greedy reader and is responsible for most things, so expanding his data plan is a good step for him.
For the youngest, we have already identified a new $50 feature phone to buy for him. Such mobile phones can be found by scrutinizing websites like eBay and dumbwireless.com. If you’d like to know more about the so-called stupid phones, Jose Bryonas has a robust YouTube channel, discussing all the stupid phones, and Reddit’s R/Dumbphones community has some useful tips for beginners.
Uses a lot of screen use apps
My husband and I have an iPhone, so we use Apple screen time. Screen Time allows families to be placed across Apple devices, allowing parents to set limits for their child users. Downloading new apps requires permission from adults and can be set to set a time limit for app usage outside of the time limit. For my purposes, I hope that screen time can be protected not only for bedtime, but also for certain times when individual apps can be used, but this lack is why I avoid mesh networks.
Microsoft Family Safety can be used across Android devices, Windows PCs and Xbox consoles for use across Apple products. Google Family links are available on both Apple and Android devices as long as everyone has a Google account.
All three are free and costly on each platform, allowing parents to control which app kids can download and set time limits. However, Apple’s screen time allows you to block app categories completely for a period of time. Children can bypass web browsing restrictions using non-edge or non-chrome browsers, which are restricted by Microsoft or Google Family Links, respectively.
And if everything else fails, there’s always the option to simply take the device away.
Don’t forget that this is an ongoing battle
Unfortunately, screen time limits are not set and forget it exercises. Kids are original about avoiding restrictions and I have far less control over the Chromebooks distributed in their schools. Regular monitoring of behaviors and habits is also necessary to seek to protect your child’s online safety and mental health. Are they hidden in their bedrooms and quiet? Just like when they were toddlers, that probably means they’re sneaking up, but now they have school laptops and other devices.
However, parents are wary of surprise at the prosperity of negative news about their children’s smartphone and internet use. It requires more work in many ways, but the reward is healthy and safe kids and the freedom to enjoy childhood without the device at hand.
