Research and Recommendations

Screen time can be fun and technology has many positive qualities. However, we have also seen the negative impacts they can have. As previously discussed, if banning screens and devices isn't helpful either, what can we do? Research suggests aiming for a balance is our best bet. Trying to maximise the fun and advantages of tech and minimise the disadvantages. Brookes and Lasser (2018) suggest 

 

"Balance means families feel good about the amount of tech in their lives and each family member is relatively comfortable with how their family members use tech. Family members are able to meet their own physical, educational social and psychological needs."

Brookes and Lasser (2018, p7) 

 

They also identify several indicators that our tech use has reached an imbalance which perhaps requires some small changes in order to find a balance once more.

• Decreased face-to face social interaction

• Reduced/disrupted sleep

• Decrease in focused uninterrupted attention

• Decreased productivity

• Limited physical activity

• Previous interests and recreational activities replaced almost exclusively by tech

• Decreased sense of well-being

 

So how do we keep a balance? how do we identify issues? And what strategies are suggested to help restore a balance? Well Brookes and Lasser lean on Turnock’s model from 2015 called the Tech Happy Life Model which is split into different levels. With green being balance, yellow requiring some intervention and red more serious intervention in order to achieve a balance with tech in our lives. But they argue that the very bedrock of the model is our relationship with our children.

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Tech Happy Life Model

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Relationship (Blue Zone)

Fundamental to the model is the relationship we have with our children and the model we provide. In order to be able to have the conversations and influence our children that is required to keep a good balance they argue we need to really invest time into positive modelling and a positive relationship with our kids. Dr John and Julie Gotman suggest that the key to building any positive relationship is what they call the “Magic ratio” of 5:1. That’s 5 positive interactions for every 1 negative interaction. Positive interaction doesn’t need to be us singing from the rooftops telling them how amazing they are, it could just be a smile, a hug, a wink, a warm smile, "Thank you", "I like how you…", "You really tried hard in….", "I really enjoyed playing with you." Their basic message is to catch kids when they are being good more than when they are being bad. So praise the desired behaviours when you see it. For example if the child turns off the Switch without a fuss, praise them for it. Over a long time this has a positive impact.

Being mindful of our own tech use is also important but a real hard one particularly in the current climate where lots of us are working at home. In 2016 a survey by Common Sense Media found that 28% of kids felt their parents were addicted to their phones, 27 % of parents said they felt addicted to their phones. If we want the changes to stick we need to model the change we want to see. The research suggests that if we’re asking children not to have devices in the bedroom but then we take ours into the bedroom it will lead to conflict. However, attached to that, Brooks and Lasser suggest that 'Techno-judging' ourselves isn’t a good idea either. They want us to be self-compassionate not self-critical so for example rather than saying to ourselves “I’m a terrible dad because I check my phone too much” we rephrase it in our mind and say “I need to check my phone less” They argue this is a more effective way to change our behaviour which will in turn create a positive model for our kids and hopefully help to change their behaviour.

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The Green Zone - Prevention

The strategies at Green Level are very much focused on prevention of issues arising, although as Brookes and Lasser admit, it is inevitable that we may need to move to the yellow level from time to time. They say this is still a healthy part of the process.

At the green level they make a range of recommendations:

• Get children involved in other activities/clubs

• Wait until technologies are developmentally appropriate before giving access to them

• Turn off as many chimes, buzzers, notification pushes as you can

• No devices in bedrooms

• No devices an hour before bed

• Create sacred times

• Create a habit of unitasking

• It’s okay to be bored

• 1 hour weekday and 2 hours weekends/holidays - Negotiate with kids and be a little flexible

• Use timers and agreed finish alerts - be flexible with video games

• Monitor but not surveillance - Use parental restrictions

 

Get children involved in activities and clubs

Children need to be involved in other activities and clubs such as sports, cooking, chess, board games, scouts guides etc. The choice can be left to the child but not doing an activity is not an option; they must have other interests outside of tech and we can help them to find those. Over time, the research suggests, they will start to find the activities need-satisfying and will hopefully opt for more of a balance.

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Wait until technologies are developmentally appropriate before introducing them. 

This is a really tough one as for things like films and games there's certification levels that we can follow but for a question like when should my child get a smartphone? That’s a much trickier question. In truth, there doesn't seem to be any clear answer from anywhere as far as I can see. Most of the research suggests it is down to how responsible you feel your child is and what your relationship is like with them. The big question to ask ourselves is do they really need a smartphone? It is also worth speaking to other parents of children the same age as if we become an 'early adopter' we could inadvertently be fast tracking conversations about devices in other households; once someone in the year group has a device the other children will also ask their parents for a device. Brooks and Lasser do recommend before handing something like a tablet or smartphone over, that there is a conversation outlining the responsibilities that go along with the phone and enabling parental restrictions on it as well. They say that contracts are an option but they weren’t sure how effective they were and found that they could be long and cumbersome so advised keeping them basic and adding to them as and when the need arises.

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Switch off all notification pushes, buzzers, alarms and alerts

Based on how distracting devices can be and knowing they can be a form of supernormal stimuli researchers also recommend switching off notification pushes and alerts as much as possible. Also given this fact, they recommend never more than one screen at a time as that is a lot of distraction and, as discussed, this can have a detrimental effect on attention span. This can be tough if you have two children and one wants to play Switch and the other wants to watch TV as inevitably they end up crossing over; it might be worth trying to position them so they can’t see each other’s screens or syncing up game play and TV times.

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Tech Free Zones (No devices in the bedroom or at dinner tables)

Sacred times or tech free times are times and zones where tech is banned. They actually say you might want to create zones or areas where tech is never allowed and there seems to be universal agreement that there should be no devices at the dinner table or in bedrooms. The reason for the ban at the dinner table is to encourage conversation which is developmentally important particularly for language development. The reason for the ban on a tech ban in bedrooms is so we can monitor how children are using their screens and make sure they aren’t accessing anything dangerous.

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No Blue Light Devices or Video games 1 before bed

As discussed previously, screens impact sleep and linked to this is no blue lights or video games before bed. As we saw earlier these can physiologically affect sleep patterns and the central nervous system so they recommend nothing for an hour before bed.

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Unitasking

This again is very much influenced by the idea of maintaining focused attention so if they are playing a board game, no TV on in the background. For us as parents, if we’re watching them play sport then we don’t have our phones out (unless we're taking photos).

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Being Bored is Okay

Being bored is okay and researchers have found this allows the mind to wander and start to manipulate ideas. There is research that boredom could actually be good for creativity.

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Agree an Appropriate Amount of Time

Agreeing an appropriate amount of time with the kids is really important and Brooks and Lasser recommend that the older they get, the more of a negotiation may be possible and actually beneficial in getting them to buy into the system. There isn’t a steadfast recommendation for children 5 and over but nearly all of the research examples seem to use 1 hour of screen time on weekdays and 2 hours on weekends and holiday etc. They do say to be flexible and particularly in periods of lockdown for example, there is an amount of flexibility required. Again, this can be negotiated with the child if you feel they are mature enough to do so. They recommend using timers as a countdown to the end of screen time periods, or you can agree with them you’ll give them a 5 minute warning before the end but different people prefer different solutions. 

 

Video games are an area with a particularly large potential for conflict and perhaps require the most flexibility in terms of negotiation on end times. A lot of time, effort and emotion can be invested in trying to get to the end of a level or achieve a certain reward within a game and this can often overrun the agreed time. Consider a scenario where a child is just about to finish a level and the parent insists that because the timer has gone off, the child should switch the computer off immediately. Brooks and Lasser say there is a high likelihood that this will lead to conflict so a negotiation can take place at that point. For example we may ask the child how much longer they feel they need and agree a 10 minute extension. We may use our judgement to decide whether this will be taken off future screen time or not and again this can be agreed with the child.

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Monitoring Not Surveillance

Brooks and Lasser suggest monitoring is a good idea, so generally knowing what activities they are involved in online is helpful but they suggest that surveillance at green level is not helpful in developing a positive relationship; checking messages without permission might actually be detrimental. Schiffrin et al. in 2014 found that this may undermine the influence we have with kids. Brooks and Lasser also suggest that we want a relationship where the kids will come forward and self disclose as this is important for self-regulation. Interestingly Kerr et al. (2010) found that kids who were closely surveilled were less likely to self-disclose and were more likely to engage in more risky online behaviours. This is supported up by other studies in 2009 and 2012. It’s important to say that they do recommend parental restrictions on devices so restricting internet access etc until you feel it is age appropriate for them to access the internet.

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Yellow Zone Indicators (Support)

Of course, even with the best will in the world, things can sometimes come to an imbalance. Habits which can quickly lead to imbalance can creep in without anyone noticing and we can find ourselves wondering how things had slipped. This is a normal part of maintaining balance and isn't something to worry about. Brookes and Lasser point to several indicators that we can look for in order to help us identify if we have reached the Yellow level.

• Screen time eclipses all other activities (time in person, sports, in-face interaction with friends)

• Kids frustrated when screen time denied

• Dip in performance at school

• Loss of sleep

• Minimal face-to-face interaction

• Frequent battles over screen time

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Yellow Level Strategies

At the Yellow level we have identified an imbalance in our tech use and need to put measures in place to help guide the child (or ourselves) back towards a balance. It’s important to stress that if we feel the need to move to yellow level then we still do all the things on the previous slide from the green level. We’re just adding in a few more explicit rules and guides to help the child find a balance again. 

 

• Discuss at a good time not in the moment

• Roll back the boundaries

• Collaboratively develop solutions with kids

• Maintain boundaries

• Use logical consequences

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Discuss at a good time not 'in the moment'

Trying to discuss tech use and potential consequences or changes to agreed times in a moment where emotions are running high will only lead to conflict. It is recommended that we wait until another time when all parties are calm to discuss a family member's tech use.

 

Roll back the boundaries

The first thing they advise at this level is rolling back the boundaries, so this could be no video games before school work is completed, or less screen time on a daily basis. Reassert that screen time is a privilege not a right. You might also separate work devices from recreational devices and set up dedicated workspaces in the house.  

 

Collaboratively develop solutions with kids

One of the fundamentals at the Yellow light level is trying to maintain the relationship and Brooks and Lasser suggest a good way to do this is to work together with our kids to come up with a plan to address the issue. This meets our kids’ basic needs for autonomy and gives them more buy in. So discussing the issue we have with their screen time and then asking them what they think you should do about it and how long for, the research suggests, should have a better long term outcome than just imposing something on the child.  

 

Maintain the boundaries

Maintain the boundary for the agreed length of time and perhaps being less flexible than when we’re in the green zone. They say that’s really your judgement call in specific situations. If we think that standing our ground is going to lead to too much conflict then picking our battles is still better at this stage in order to preserve the relationship. They say actually discussing the fact that we are making an allowance helps highlight our desire for our kids to succeed and can help in building the relationship.

 

Logical Consequences

Consequences are an inevitable part of this journey but there’s no specific recommendations on what should be done. But the basic philosophy from much of the literature seems to be based in restorative justice so allowing our kids the chance to make the adjustments and move back to the green level. Brooks and Lasser suggest that consequences should be related and proportional. So for example, If a child sneaks in an extra 30 minutes of screen time it would be of no benefit to ground them for a month as this has no clear link to the behaviour and seems quite harsh. They suggest we should have a chat with the child about why having the extra screen time wasn’t helpful and negotiate a consequence collaboratively with the child such as 30 minutes less screen time from the the next day's total. 

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Red Zone Indicators (Strong Intervention)

At the top of the triangle, where strong intervention is required, we have the Red Level. There are several behaviours to look for that indicate our tech used has reached this level of imbalance. The research suggests that, typically, this behaviour would not present itself until middle or secondary school but they advise that many parents may not have the strategies to help the child at this point and advise incorporating the help of professionals.

• Strong negative reaction to screen time being reduced or when screen time is finished

• Unable to sleep

• Sneaking around

• Illegal or risky activity

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Red Zone Strategies

Even at this stage, going cold turkey and removing access to all devices is not recommended as it is very difficult to enforce and can result in a complete break down in the relationship between parent and child. Rather than going cold turkey they suggest: 

• wi-fi access

• restricted mobile data use

• specific screen times in designated areas

• no access to recreational sites, social media etc. when doing school work.