Creating a Safe Internet Environment at Home: Best Practices for Parents

According to Nationally representative poll, two third of parents are worried about children’s  increased time on devices, including overall screen time and use of social media, taking number 1 and number 2 spots on the children’s health concerns this year.(Hindustan Times). 

Recent Common Sense Media research shows that media use by tweens (ages 8–12 years) and teens (ages 13–18 years) rose faster in the two years since the COVID-19 pandemic than the four years before. The research found 8- to 12-year-olds spend an average of five and a half hours a day on screens and consuming media. That rate climbs to over eight and a half hours a day for teens.

Among teens, 79% said they use social media and online videos at least once a week, and 32% of these said they “wouldn’t want to live without” YouTube. And nearly two-thirds (65%) of tweens said they watch TV, 64% watch online videos and 43% play games on a smartphone or tablet every day.

In another survey, 71% of parents with younger children (under 12 years old) said they were concerned about their child spending too much time in front of screens

Quite alarming right?

Technology inherently neither beneficial nor detrimental. It all depends upon its usage. But again, it is the responsibility of a parent to assess what is developmentally appropriate for their child. This can be done by informing children about pros and cons of specific digital media consumed by them. But again, the question arises is how much is too much. The answer is not that straight forward. There are various factors that are involved in this.

First and foremost, what type of digital media your child is consuming, be it games, social media, the news, online videos, apps, texting, FaceTime, educational content etc?

Secondly what is the motivation behind using technology be it peer pressure, boredom, research, socializing or just a feelgood factor?

Thirdly, how much time a child is spending on using technology  and doing any other things like reading book, sleeping, playing etc.?

Fourthly, whatever a child is watching is it aligning with the family values or not?

It also depends upon child’s personal attributes like, his or her personality, mental health condition, age, etc.

Lastly, what is the setting of child using any technology, is he watching alone, or with friends, or with an unknown person.

Only when all these questions are considered, you would be able to answer how much  screen time is actually Ok.

Concern remains the same if we don’t find a solution to control what they should watch and for how long? I have come across a word called digital diet. It is like any other healthy diet we look for a child. For example, how much sugar a child should consume? Neither too much nor too less, anything which is balanced. Similarly, Digital diet is consuming digital media without compromising on their physical and cognitive learning and development.

It might seem overwhelming but with all the information available online be it parental control, parenting groups, scholarly research, monitoring apps and Happinetz technology which is definitely a revolution in this digital world, parenting do look possible.

Happinetz is a safe internet for kids’ box that connects to your home router wired or wirelessly. Once connected, it creates a separate WiFi which filters out age-inappropriate internet and helps you set screen time schedules for devices connected to this WiFi. Happinetz continuously monitors more than 110 million websites and apps and is preconfigured to block more than 22 million adult and unsecured websites.

• Exhaustive filtering system
• Customizable internet schedule
• Insight to help parents monitor what websites & apps children are opening
• Quick setup: A quick 2 step-5 minutes process
• Zero kid involvement: No need to download apps on your child’s device
• Device compatibility: Connect up to 10 devices, including Android or iOS phones, tablets, laptops, and smart TVs.

By using Happinetz you will definitely be solving much of your problems but with this we can also make a Family Technology Plan. In this plan you can list down certain rules.

• Device can only be used after finishing studies and before dinner and should not be used during mealtime, school time and before going to bed.
• Device can be used only for 30 mins at a stretch.
• What type of digital media to be used need to be decided like, YouTube, WhatsApp etc.
• Where to use the device? For example, in the presence of parents or in common area etc.

“Just like you would watch out for them on the corner or at the park, you watch out for them online.”…Need of the hour.

 This post is a part of Happinetz – Safe Internet For Kids  https://www.happinetz.com/product/happinetz-box