Striking a balance between screen exposure and leisure time outdoors is not an easy task.
Creating good digital habits to balance the time of exposure to the screens and avoid cyber dependence is not an easy task. Dads and moms of digital families must add this “additional task” to our work as parents.
According to studies conducted in the United States, children start watching TV as early as four months of age. There are countless channels for babies and young children with drawings, music, and colors that calm them on pay-TV. They even sing lullabies.
Another part of the study indicates that 75% of children have their first mobile device at 3. Yes, from the three and almost always, the device is a tablet. We replace the pacifier with the cybernetic pacifier, which is usually a mobile device. The use of one’s cell phone is not yet common at these ages.
From the age of 10, children begin to suffer from “vampirism,” which is nothing more than staying up until the morning’s wee hours connected to their cell phone, playing or chatting with their friends.
This indicates that children and young people are overexposed to screens throughout the day, a situation that can create: language disorders in young children, attention deficit, or stress in older children.
According to specialists in neuropsychology, the estimated connection time should be:
- Maximum of 1 hour a day in children from 2 to 5 years old.
- Over six years old, no more than 2 hours a day.
- From 12 years, a maximum of 4 hours a day. They do not have to be hours in a row. They can be distributed throughout the day.
This connection time should never be during lunchtime, nor in the hour before going to sleep. This applies to all age ranges.
But the vast majority of the time, it is difficult for parents to achieve that balance in screen exposure. It may be easier in school time due to the duties and tasks they have to do when they get home or because of the attendance to extracurricular activities. Still, we must make sure that the day’s routine has at least 2 hours of disconnected leisure of the screens on vacations.
We must ensure that the daily routine has at least 2 hours of leisure disconnected from the screens on vacation.
To make this task easier for you, there is a valuable resource that many digital families are using today and that you should also take advantage of.
Parental Control is a resource for parents who want to prevent children or adolescents from accessing Web pages or apps inappropriate for their age, setting time limits for connection to screens, among other features.
Parental Control is a resource for parents who want to prevent children or adolescents from accessing Web pages or apps inappropriate for their age, setting time limits for connection to screens, among other features.
The advantage is almost all parental controls on the market have a free trial period. This is so that you know if it will work for you before making any payment, each family is different.
Faith-based streaming service: Yippee Entertainment
To help your child develop resourceful digital habits, parents can also introduce certain forms of entertainment which deem suitable for them. It is nearly impossible to separate your children’s exposure to technology and digital transformation, which is why parents can consider signing up on streaming platforms which offer the right kind of content for minors.
Yippee Entertainment is a streaming service which airs faith-based programs and shows which are especially created to instill good Christian values, the word of our Lord in children. Yippee has grown mainly popular during the COVID-19 pandemic because many people are forced into a lockdown, staying home due to social distancins protocols.
Therefore, television has become the major source of entertainment for both adults and kids. This is where Yippee popularity grew, having a hub of faith-based programs which are as inspiring as they are entertaining.
