When my eldest child began school this year he needed to have an i-pad as part of his learning program. It was with a little trepidation that we purchased this for him and off the back of that we also purchased a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. Needless to say, we had some new technology coming into our home and with this, brought new opportunities and new challenges.
Consider for a moment, what are the screen time technology devices in your home? How many can you list?
- mobile phone
- television
- game consoles such as Nintendo Switch
- i-pad
- laptop
- Virtual Reality devices
- desktop computer
There may be others but I just wanted to focus on digital technology which utilises 'screen time'.
There has been a lot of research done about the health impacts of screen time, especially for children. I am personally not an advocate of a lot of screen time for anyone. In fact, this year my husband and I have set a goal to move our mobile phones to the charging station outside our room and not bring them into our bedroom. We even purchased stand alone alarm clocks in an effort to get a better night sleep and not have the temptation of our phones by our bed.
The Australian Parenting Website, raisingchildren.net.au has some good information about screen time and the national and international guidelines for screen time and children.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies outline the guidelines:
no screen time for children younger than two years
no more than one hour per day for children aged 2–5 years
no more than two hours of sedentary recreational screen time per day for children and young people aged 5–17 years (not including schoolwork).
"Most Australian children spend more time on screens than is recommended. Estimates from primary research suggest only 17–23% of preschoolers and 15% of 5–12 year olds meet screen-time guidelines. Screen time has also been shown to increase between the ages of 10 and 14, especially among boys. The types of screen-time that increased was electronic gaming for boys and TV, computer use and social networking for girls."
Two things here are alarming to me. Firstly, the guidelines say that a 5 year old could have up to 2 hours of screen time a day, not including schoolwork. To me, that seems like a lot. The other alarming part, but also not surprising, is that most Australian children spend more time on screens than the guidelines recommend. I wonder why? It seems to me that there is a silent pandemic occurring in the homes of Australian families around digital technology.
The week before school went back and before my eldest was to embark on a new learning style with an i-pad, we held a family council. You can read more about family councils here; https://www.home-centred.com/post/family-council-101. We counselled together to come up with a family technology plan. In order to do this, I used these tools:
- Technology Contract https://www.thetechmum.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Family-Technology-Contract-3-1.pdf
- E-safety commissioner website resources https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents
- Technology Contract poster https://www.sunshineandhurricanes.com/taking-control-of-technology/
We watched some video clips about e-safety and technology contracts. We then discussed them and I filled out the technology contract I had printed. One thing I really liked about this technology contract was that it facilitated conversation. The ability for each member of the family to have their voice heard in this discussion is essential for success. If there is no buy-in you may find challenges such as sneaking around to use technology or an increase in contention in the home.
In this contract there is a section about inappropriate content. This is an important conversation to have with children. In our home, we agreed that when/if we see inappropriate content we will tell ourselves, "This is bad" so that we can identify it and make appropriate steps to fix the situation rather than sit there longer absorbing it.
One other thing you will notice on this Family Technology Contract is that it mentions a central charging station. In our home, we bought an inchargebox https://www.inchargebox.com.au This is a lockable box which we have in our family command centre with USB charges inside. We agreed during the family council to lock the i-pads away about 5pm each day. In the box we purchased, it has 12 charging stations.
I also printed out the technology contract poster and framed it. This sits in a place we can all see it, as a reminder of our shared values. I also use the phrases it mentions on a regular basis when discussing technology with the kids. These include, "Technology is a Privilege Not a Right" and "Turn it Off is NOT a Negotiation". I found excellent supporting resources at https://www.sunshineandhurricanes.com/taking-control-of-technology/
I'm a big believer in not reinventing the wheel and there are plenty of excellent resources online to support your family council discussion. Here is a guide to help you have your own family council technology contract conversation, based around what worked for us.
I have also used a technology time ticket system and connected that with keeping rooms cleaned but that ended up being more effort than reward so the simple system we have settled on is this; Complete 2 pages in your homework books and make sure your music practice is done and you can have 30 min of digital technology screen time. This seems to be the sweet spot in our house and it is working. You need to keep in mind the demands on your children and their ages when deciding how much technology time will be given, when and for what reasons.
In my research for our family council, I came across this quote. I want you to remember that you are the parent and whilst our children are still learning to make approrpate choices, it is our role to guide them. Let's be real, their brains are not fully developed yet so we can't place all the burden onto them. I believe what Stephen Covey is saying here.
Of course, I have mostly discussed accessing technology in this post. What you access and how you use technology is just as important as when and for how long but that's a post for another day!
If you would like assistance with establishing your own technology contract for your home, please reach out to me at home-centred@outlook.com I'd also love to hear how you go having a family council and writing your own Family Technology Contract. Feel free to send me a message on my socials or via email.
Thanks for joining me, in making life a little more Home Centred!
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