Findings by the Pew Research Centre in the United States suggest parents are cutting off access to their children’s digital world in order to punish them. About 60% of parents take their teenagers’ access to technology away when kids do something wrong. At the same time, it’s also common for parents to limit access to technology, regardless of conduct. 57% of parents report regulating their children’s use.
14
Being digitally grounded
DEVICE OR VICE? BY SIMON HARDING
S
creening ‘screen time’ and finding balance is probably a good thing, for everyone.
When many RGS parents were growing up there was a rotary telephone on a table in the hall, the television had just five channels, and the compact disc revolutionised music. And if you were lucky enough to have a computer in your house, it was probably not that useful. These days electronic devices, computers, telecommunication and media have converged and have become entrenched in our lives, especially those of our native e-generation children. A moderate amount of screen time has been shown to be good for our children. The Office of the eSafety Commissioner considers the use of electronic devices to benefit learning, social interaction and creativity, as well as to support literacy and improve numeracy skills. Likewise, moderate game playing can be beneficial too. Leading psychologists have
associated it with increased resilience and lower levels of stress and anxiety in children. But moderation is a key according to researchers and policy analysts. Too much time online has been shown to cause sleep deprivation, anxiety, and to have a negative impact on school performance. The advice from the Office of the eSafety Commissioner is to stay involved, set time limits and encourage other activities. After all, whatever time our children spend looking at a screen for entertainment during the week will feel much better to us – and hopefully them – if it is balanced by their time spent doing other things. The Department of Health is concerned about the link between physical inactivity and seven diseases – diabetes, bowel and uterine cancer, dementia, breast cancer, coronary heart disease, and stroke – and
has published Australia’s Physical and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines. In them, it adopts the recommendation of the American Society of Paediatrics that children between the ages of five and seventeen spend no more than two hours per day entertaining themselves on screens. Australian Market Research firm, Roy Morgan, has been tracking children’s television and online viewing behaviour since 2008. According to their research, 2016 was the first year in which children spent more time online than watching television. That’s probably because – according to a poll by Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital – almost all Australian teenagers, two-thirds of primary school children and a third of pre-schoolers, now have their own mobile device. The same RCH survey reports that Australian children aged between six and thirteen spend nearly 32 hours per week looking
at screens, whether at online content or television. This figure is more than double the time recommended by the Australian Government. These huge numbers are mirrored around the world. A report from Ofcom – the UK’s communications industry regulator – showed that 94% of children aged 12-15 went on line for nearly 21 hours per week on top of nearly 14.5 hours per week of television. For many parents, that’s almost equivalent to a full working week. Of course, managing the watching – or playing – is only half the battle for us parents. Stopping each session has become something of a battle ground. US magazine, Psychology Today, suggests that interactive screen time is more likely to cause mood and cognitive issues than watching television because the level to which children are absorbed in it can cause hyperarousal and compulsive use. Try wrenching your children away from the screen and they’ll most likely
