{"id":1203,"date":"2023-12-10T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/?p=1203"},"modified":"2023-12-15T09:02:41","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T17:02:41","slug":"limit-teen-media-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/limit-teen-media-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Screen Time and Your Teens? Start by Asking Them to Decide"},"content":{"rendered":"

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has clear guidelines for parents seeking advice about screen time for children: Less is better and content matters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How do parents limit their teens’ use of social media?<\/h3>\n

For children ages 2 to 5, limit screen time to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should watch with their younger kids to help them understand what they\u2019re seeing. For older kids, screen time should come after completing other activities and tasks that matter to them and their family.<\/p>\n

While these guidelines can be challenging to put into action, my mother would have had no trouble enforcing them. For most of my childhood, we didn\u2019t have a television! I remember rough mornings in junior high school. Not only were they too early and cold (winter in New York is\u00a0really cold), at school everyone was discussing last night\u2019s TV shows. I tried to look casual or preoccupied while they sounded so\u2026cool.<\/p>\n

As a pediatrician, I understand the social power of being up on the latest show, app, game, or video. Being connected on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok matters on today\u2019s Monday mornings.<\/p>\n

However, I want my teens and my teen patients to turn off their screens. I know doing so will broaden their horizons and shrink their waistlines. They also, on some level, get this. But it\u2019s hard to translate advice and understanding into action.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s perhaps ironic that I found some words to inspire teens to turn off their screens from an episode of\u00a0Grey\u2019s Anatomy<\/i>. They have just the right touch of inspirational simplicity that appeals to the texting and social media crowd:<\/p>\n

\n

Decide.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re all going to die. We don\u2019t get to decide where or when.<\/span><\/p>\n

But we do get to decide how we\u2019re going to live. So do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Decide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is this the life you want to live?\u00a0Is this the person you want to love?<\/span><\/p>\n

Is this the best you can be?\u00a0Can you be stronger, kinder, more compassionate?<\/span><\/p>\n

Decide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Breathe in, breathe out, and decide.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When you put it this way, fewer kids would choose to spend so much time in front of a screen. And definitely not the\u00a0average 7 hours\u00a0a day kids are currently spending on entertainment media, including TVs, computers, phones, and other electronic devices.<\/p>\n

Many parents have worked hard to control the amount of time their kids spend on media and devices. \u00a0There are tools you can use to control exposure to inappropriate sites and time spent on media.<\/p>\n

Before placing restrictions, you can also sit down with your kids and ask them for input and ideas. What should they be allowed to watch and use? Have they seen online content that concerned or scared them?<\/p>\n

Start by talking with your teen.<\/h3>\n

The AAP has a terrific tool for this conversation. It asks how many hours a day they need to sleep, eat, and go to school, then how many hours are used for chores, exercise, activities, family, and friends. At the end, it calculates how much time is left in the day and asks them what they want to do with it.<\/p>\n

Using this\u00a0Family Media Plan<\/a> helps you and your kids limit screen time and asks them to \u201cDecide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To limit your teen’s use of media and phones – start by talking with them about their goals and ask for their ideas. And use the AAP Family Media Plan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1209,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[250,248,249,111,567,72],"class_list":["post-1203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-use","tag-family-media-plan","tag-kids-and-screen-time","tag-media-use","tag-screen-time","tag-talking-with-teens","tag-teens","ages-teen"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1702659688:6"],"_edit_last":["6"],"slide_template":["default"],"video_format_choose":["youtube"],"_custom_body_class":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["60"],"qode_animate-page-title":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-text":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-image":["no"],"qode_show-sidebar":["default"],"qode_hide-featured-image":["no"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":[""],"_thumbnail_id":["1209"],"wpfp_favorites":["39"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_ages":["292"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1702659750"],"ase_chapter_enable_timeline":["off"],"_wpb_vc_js_status":["false"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":["[]"],"_yoast_wpseo_keywordsynonyms":["[\"\"]"],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["3"],"_yoast_wpseo_wordproof_timestamp":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":["How to limit teens use of media"],"_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":["To limit your teen's use of media and phones - start by talking with them about their goals and ask for their ideas."],"_yoast_wpseo_linkdex":["67"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"],"ase_mapbox_style":["openstreet"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1203"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4375,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1203\/revisions\/4375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}