How Much Screen Times Are Recommended for Kids？

How much time should your kids spend on the screen every day?

Most children in the US spend at least 7 hours a day sitting in front of a screen. You may agree that lengthy screen times are unhealthy for kids' physical and mental development. However, it has become increasingly arduous for parents to control the periods within which their little ones watch TV, play video games, or use tablets and smartphones because of their busy schedules. Another problem is that these screens are virtually everywhere.

Nevertheless, it is not impossible to maintain a balance between outdoor play and digital media use for your family. Read on to find out the recommended screen times for kids and how you can control the times your children stay on the screens.

What are the hazards of watching the screen for a long time?

Unfortunately, if you cannot control how much screen time your kids get, you will regret it later. Here are a few of the hazards that prolonged screen use can cause. Read this guide to know more about the effects of too much screen time.

1. Develop them bad life habits:

Kids who spend more time watching or playing an on-screen game tend to prefer a sedentary lifestyle. Lack of physical exercise will in return lead to health complications like obesity and diabetes, according to studies. Other studies have shown that school-going children who spend much of their time on screens are likely going to develop unhealthy eating behavior. Bad eating habits are also risk factors of obesity.

Excessive screen time can also decrease sleep quantity in kids and negatively influence their sleeping patterns. Several researchers have shown that children who sleep less gain more weight and become obese. The Nurses' Health Study revealed that people who less than 5 hours every night are at a high risk of becoming obese.

2. Visual impairment

Drawn-out screen time can harm kids' vision. Usually, children develop strained eyes and blurred vision. No parent wants their children to start wearing glasses for something they could have avoided.

3.Proclivity towards violence

The more screen time your children have, the more they will see or hear violent actions or words. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry says children like imitating what they see and hear on TV. If they watch violent videos and TV shows and play video games full of violence, that's what they will start doing.

4. Risk of cyber-bullying

Children who hold smartphones or tablets for longer hours can reach their peers through social media easily. Therefore, they are at a high risk of becoming victims of cyber-bullying. They can also become bullies over the network.

5. Risk of exposure to porn sites

If you have not set up parental controls on your devices, your child is likely going to access porn sites in the long run. How about a kid who stays on the smartphone screen for long hours? It is easy for such a child to see some explicit pictures or videos pop up while they are browsing. It just takes one tap on the screen for them to start watching or reading inappropriate content. Worse still, your child can get addicted to porn.

6. Bad for Children' Development

A 2019 study posted in the JAMA Pediatrics journal suggested that too excessive screen times can negatively impact a child's development during their pre-school years. According to the findings, children under 36 months will experience decreased developmental outcomes if they spend too much time on the screen. Therefore, your kids should spend more time exploring their surroundings and developing motor skills instead of gazing at a screen.

Recommended screen times for kids

You may be wondering how many screen times your kids should get. Well, the American Heart Association recommends that parents should only allow their kids to gaze at the screen for two hours (or less) a day. The recommendation for children aged between 2 and 5 is even tougher. Parents and guardians should limit these little ones' screen time to an hour per day.

If you thought that was stringent, then the American Academy of Pediatrics has some shocking advice for you. It says children between 18 and 24 months should only use media for video chatting. However, the AAP acknowledges that it is very difficult to meet the recommended screen times for kids because of the integration of technology in the daily life of most people today.

What can parents do to manage and control their kids' screen times?

Let's face it. Setting time limits on-screen use for your kids isn't the easiest thing to do. Worse still, some parents are themselves captives of too much watching. However, helping your kids navigate the media-filled world isn't impossible. Here are some tips to do that.

1. Accompany your kids or play with them

One of the best ways to control how much screen time your kids access is participating in their digital world. Play with them the games they enjoy most and surf the Internet together. Of course, playing outdoor games with your children will help greatly. However, you need to be innovative about finding positive digital activities to participate with them when you're indoors.

As you play or browse together, ensure you do not go beyond the advisable screen times for kids. This way, you can easily train them and determine when to stop the game or browsing. It is easier to end a game you are involved in than the one you're not.

2. Use reliable tools to help you

You feel exhausted. You're just from a long day's work and you know your kids have had a great day watching movies or playing virtual games. You can't even sit down to play a physical game with them. Here's the truth: there's almost no way of controlling how much screen time your kids have when you are often far from them.

Fortunately, you can use one of the reliable technology tools out there to sort out the problem and meet the recommended screen times for kids. One of these tools is an app called FamiSafe. The software can function on both iOS and Android devices.

For iOS:

FamiSafe comes with a screen time control function. The app allows parents to monitor daily amounts of time their kids spend online. Also, you can block your kids' devices temporarily or reward extra screen time to those students who complete their assignments effectively.

Here is how to set the screen time limit for FamiSafe.

1. Start by creating a FamiSafe account.
2. Install the application on both your phone and your kids' phone(s).
3. Click on Screen Time.
4. Click on Block Device. This will block the entire phone of the kid.
5. Click on Set Screen Time Limit
6. Select a start and end period.
7. Click OK to begin screen time allowance.

For Android:

Parents can easily know the activities that waste much of the time of their children on phones by tracking their day-to-day app usage. Like in iOS, FamiSafe for Android allows parents and guardians to temporarily jam their children's devices. As a result, children can focus more on their school-work and family chores.

Here are the steps for limiting your kids' Android screen time from your Android phone using this app.

• Register a FamiSafe account.
• Install the app on both your phone and your kids' phone.
• Click on Screen Time to find a chart with data on kids' screen time.
• Click on Block Device to block the entire device.
• Click on Set Screen Time Limit.
• Select the start and end times.
• Click OK.
• Click on Smart Schedule to set when and where your kids can use their screens.

FamiSafe is a reliable app for parents

With FamiSafe, you can rest assured that your children are safe from prolonged screen use and its negative effects. The all-in-one parental control application links family devices, helping to promote healthy digital habits in kids. Moreover, the reliable app makes it easy to parent.

1. FamiSafe provides a cross-platform parental control solution

There seems to be no end to the beautiful features that FamiSafe has to offer to beat the recommended screen times for kids. With its cross-platform parental control feature, FamiSafe helps parents to monitor their kids' iPhones from their Android phones in five simple steps. Here's what to do to achieve this:

• Open a new FamiSafe account.
• Install FamiSafe app on the parent's and kid's phone.
• Make similar settings on both phones.
• Go to the parent phone's FamiSafe app.
• Set screen limit time, location tracker, or online content blocker.

2. FamiSafe is available to most devices

One great thing about FamiSafe is its versatility. The app is available to most devices, including iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire.

3. Other helpful functions of FamiSafe:

Aside from helping you control how many screen times your kids have, FamiSafe also offers several other important features.

With FamiSafe, you can view location history to make sure your kids do not visit suspicious places like night or strip clubs at unusual times. By keeping a large database, it is relatively easy to pre-block gambling, porn, and other harmful content on your child's phone.

FamiSafe monitor's your kids' albums and sends instant warnings to you when it detects explicit content on the device. This will help you prevent porn and online sexual harassment.

Though difficult, it is possible to meet the recommended screen times for kids. You only need to follow a few tips. Especially, installing FamiSafe on your electronic devices can go a long way in controlling how much screen time your kids enjoy. The app's features offer more help in ensuring that your children have a healthy digital life. Get FamiSafe today to control the amount of time your family stays fixed on screens and reduce the potential for the associated negative effects of unrestrained screen use.