When we hear about screen time and children, most advice focuses on time limits. But time limits are only one way to think about children and screen time. More importantly, we need to consider content: What are your children watching during their screen time? The content your child consumes on-line influences all kinds of things in their lives, from how young kids play to how older kids think about their problems.
With that in mind, the following are a few things for parents and guardians to consider when thinking about what children are watching on their screens:
Have you watched what they are watching? If your child is watching something, it is a good idea for you to watch it, too. Things like “Huggy Wuggy” and “Rainbow Friends” sound appropriate for young children, but both are horror content that contain violent images. And it’s easy to miss things like this unless you have also watched them. This recommendation moves across age groups as well: it is just as important to know what your four-year-old is watching as what your fourteen-year-old is watching.
Are you talking to your child about what they are watching? Children are not always the best judges of what is and isn’t healthy for them, and that goes for screen time, too. They may have stumbled across something on YouTube that is scary to them, but they aren’t sure what to do with the feelings that they experience about the content they are watching. Having open conversations about what they are watching helps parents to know how to set limits for individual children. And side note: just because you may like watching something, doesn’t mean your child should be watching it. Some content is best meant for adults.
What are the limits you have in place? If your limits are only around time, consider adding some limits around content, too. Sometimes we say “yes” to allowing our children to watch something and then realize afterward that it was not great content for them. It might be too scary, too violent, or just not be what you thought it was. And in that case, it’s okay to set a limit or eliminate access to that content. Just because your child’s friends are watching something, does not mean that you need to give your child access to it, too.
In the end, all the media your child consumes, both on-line and on TV, influences them more than we may realize. A preschooler, who has been watching a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine, is likely to want to play with trains. A preschooler, who has been watching Jason movies, is going to want to play slasher. One of those options is going to go over much better at school. Parents and guardians have an active role to play in the use of screens that goes far beyond time limits, and we can use that role to guide appropriate content choices across childhood.
Katelyn Collins, MS, ECMH-II
Education Director, Sprout
