Do you have rules for your children about how long they can spend on devices?
DanielleMFM
admin
Hi everyone,
We’ve just seen some research from broadcasting watchdog Ofcom saying that preschool children (under-5s) are spending, on average, over 4 hours a day in front of a screen (TV, tablet, YouTube etc).
Predictably, a fair number of 'parenting experts’ are being quoted in the press today about how hugely worrying they think these findings are.
But Ofcom says the vast majority of parents (of children aged 5 to 15) they spoke to really weren’t that concerned about how much time their children spent watching TV – although about a third of them said were concerned about too much time spent on a tablet, smartphone or games console.
So, we want to know what you think – and what you do.
Do you have rules for how long your child can spend watching telly? Or playing on a tablet or computer or games console?
Or do you just go with the flow?
If you do have rules, do please tell us what they are. We’d love to know.
Please do share your thoughts with us by adding a post to this thread. We really looking forward to hearing what you have to say.
Replies
With my 7yo she loves her tablet and computer games it got to a point where she became very angry all the time if she could go on it and stopped tidying her room or helping me which she loved to do before we got them which was not good at all so we made a chart with daily task for her to do such as keep your room tidy, brush teeth and read with either me or her dad aswell as other little things and each one she did she earnt a star and every 5 she earns is 1 hour on her games it seems to work great as she earns allot but ends up doing the tasks and because some or fun she enjoys them that much she forgets about the time she has left x
That's a good idea SFW91. My partners 5 year old boy stays with us every other weekend from Thursday to Sunday night and the minute he gets in he'll get the ipad and apart from obviously eating and sleeping, my partner would think nothing of letting him sit on it until he went home again. It drives me mad. He doesn't talk to you properly as he's so engrossed. He gets frustrated and angry at the games he plays and he'll get upset and moody if he has to put the thing down to go out or something. It drives me mad. I used to try and kerb it but it's hard as he's not my child. I have a baby that certainly won't be allowed the same allowances that this little boy is allowed when she is a little older, and it bothers me how I'm meant to make her understand she has restrictions when her half brother doesn't!
Yes, I have very strict rules for using the smartphone for my children. They both can use my phone when they want to play games, but not more than for half an hour. My older doughter has her own phone, but I installed the parental control app to it: http://freepps.top/apps/parenting/safe-lagoon-parental-control It blocks dangerous and inappropriate websites and monitor her social activity. And the most important for it manage her screen time. And for using TV of course, my children can spend only 1 hour a day watching TV and 2 hours on weekends.