Our research found that using devices had transcended them being used on special occasions and/or as a reward, and more a part of each and every day. Importantly, parents would often position screentime alongside another event, such as using their device to complete homework or using their device to engage in physical activity. Many parents also importantly focused on helping a child find a balance on what they do, rather than how long they spend on their screen.
More specifically, our study revealed that sometimes parents understand the technology itself to be a collaborative partner especially in relation to encouraging their child to follow specific rules around use.
For some parents this meant that when multiple devices were available, specific usage could be compartmentalised, suggesting perhaps that they can help their child understand how devices and tasks connect together.
In an example from our study, some of the children had devices provided by school, meaning that parents were then able to develop clearer guidelines based on specific devices. For example, school devices were only used for school work, and therefore using them to watch videos for entertainment was not permitted. This is a helpful way of helping a child to find balance.
Parents also used app features to create a safer environment for their child. For example they would ask their child about risks in using an app such as Snapchat, and then on the child’s advice, enforce app features that would stop that occurring. Whist a collaborative approach to digital safety is good, be careful talking about this with your child, because sometimes they don’t know any more than you do.
Tip: A good tip we found is to be sensible to the situation, and not get so caught up on how the app works, but more about what it does. Ask the child to explain how the app works and then think about how you’d deal with this social situation if it was offline. This cuts out worries about a parent not being familiar with the app and lets parents provide useful advice to their child based on their life skills and understanding of friendships, communication, risky content and other issues children can come across online.
Conversation Tip: Find a media article about children’s screentime and ask your child’s views on it. Ask them if the author has the right information and whether they agree with them or not. Starting a conversation using a media article is a simple and non-confronting way to start a conversation about technology use because it takes the focus off the child’s tech use, to children in general.