With Extension associate professor in the Home and Community department Elizabeth Davis.
As time has passed, phones, tablets, and televisions have become a part of everyday life, and parents have become cautious of their children's media habits.
Professor Davis is here to provide tips and tricks to help kids set healthy boundaries with their technology.
Wynter Varner
Thank you for joining us today, Professor Davis.
Elizabeth Davis
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Wynter Varner
How can parents start right when introducing their kids to technology?
Elizabeth Davis
There are several things that parents can do when introducing their kids to technology initially.
It's to make sure that it's appropriate for their age, that they're not using technology as a babysitter, and that they're introducing it for developmental reasons.
So selecting high-quality media — not that it has to be like educational per se — helps them connect with the world and understand their environment.
Things that can help kids think critically, be creative, engage with music, art, and poetry are really important for introducing kids to technology.
Wynter Varner
What boundaries should parents work on helping their kids set with technology?
Elizabeth Davis
Boundaries are a really important aspect of safety with technology, and part of the boundaries ought to be around the amount of time that kids are spending on screen.
We already talked a little bit about the quality of the content, but so is having times that screens and technology aren't an option.
Meal times are a good example, its helps to make sure that kids are still engaging physically in their life.
Time with friends, sports, and family time and things that are not focused on technology, so tech-free or screen-free time is a really important part of that.
Some families have boundaries around where kids are allowed to use technology, whether it's in the living room or whether it has to be out of their bedrooms at a certain time.
Those are things that really should be decided initially and then adjusted with the age of the child, instead of just having a free-for-all all of the time.
Wynter Varner
What habits should parents watch out for in their children regarding media use?
Elizabeth Davis
When it comes to habits that can indicate a concern, the top one, I think, is just excessive use.
When kids develop or show a preference for engaging with technology over engaging in their life, being on devices all the time, having that be their main form of engagement or socialization, or if that's how they spend all of their leisure or pleasure time, it can be problematic.
And then there can be indicators that there's something problematic that's happening on screen-time.
If kids start trying to be sneaky or get access to devices that are not supervised, those can be things that parents need to watch out for.
Namely, changed behavior in the way their kids engage with technology.
Wynter Varner
How can parents help their kids stay safe online?
Elizabeth Davis
One of the ways that parents can help kids stay safe online is by also being online.
People, children in particular, behave differently when they know that they're being supervised or monitored.
Knowing that their parents are also engaging can be a really strong deterrent from engaging in potentially dangerous or harmful online activities.
Setting boundaries, which we talked a little bit about, is important. Create a plan as a family.
Creating a media plan like this tells us what we expect: these are the safe boundaries, these are the types of media that you can use, these are the times that you can use these medias, and should technology ever be used in a way that is dangerous or damaging, either to them or to someone else, then these are the agreed upon consequences or expectations of what will happen.
Wynter Varner
Do you have any other tips or resources that you'd like to share today?
Elizabeth Davis
This is a topic that's really important to me, both professionally and personally, and there are so many resources and tips that are available.
I realize that it's overwhelming as a parent, all of the things that are available to us and to our kids.
So my other tip as a parent is to make sure that we're modeling what we want our children to behave like online in our own technology use.
For example, if we want our children to be present in their life and engage with friends and family, we need to model the kind of behavior that we want to see.
We need to make sure that we're not spending too much time on screens and that we're engaging in our lives.
The resources often are dependent on the provider and the types of devices.
There are a lot of parental controls and resources that can help us monitor and make sure that our kids don't have access to things that are not developmentally appropriate, and also that people or programs don't have access to our kids.
Wynter Varner
Thank you again for joining us today, Professor Davis.
Elizabeth Davis
Thank you.
Wynter Varner
This has been Wynter Varner with the USU Extension Education Highlights. Thank you for tuning in.
