Optus Pause and screen time tips: managing your kids

Sometimes we all need advice, even with tools like Optus Pause at our disposal. Here's how to call ‘time’ on screen time. 

We love our screens; they’re in our hands, in our beds, in our cars and even on the dinner table. But how much is too much?

Since the first iPhone was released in 2007, the amount of down-time we spend focussed on our computers, games, smart phones, and tablets has exploded.  

Tablets and smart phones have almost become a must have for parents who want to enjoy a restaurant meal with a toddler or restless teens. An explosion of learning games and apps started that trend, and justified it to an extent, with younger and younger children. Devices at the table meant improved digestion and grownups finishing their sentences - finishing their thoughts.

The electronic baby sitter in restaurants, became a mealtime habit that’s continued in many homes.  But with content becoming bottomless and increasing (FOMO) fear of missing out, this can create a kind of addiction without any stopping cues. Stopping for mealtime used to be one of those cues. 

In his TED talk, psychologist Professor Adam Alter points out the absence of these stopping cues. These natural signals to stop an activity and reset by changing activity to something else. Stopping cues like meals or coming to the end of a story. Now online stories often have back links that can take you down rabbit holes that can swallow hours – series episodes, with auto play, make binging just too easy.

But our smart devices are still wonderful sources of education, relaxation and connection. Especially during COVID lockdowns and travel bans, many families spread over state lines and continents have stayed connected with face to face interaction over our devices. The use of online school learning, things like music lessons and educational content, e-learning has also exploded. We all just need balance.

How much is too much?

This is the big parenting question around kids’ use of devices. The answer always seems to be moderation. As a whole it could be argued that society’s just got into some bad habits, excesses around screen gazing. However, in the last year during the pandemic our devices have become our fitness coaches, teachers and extended social lives which may have created unhealthy levels of dependency.  

Growing, developing children and teens still need a balance of quality sleep and physical activity as well as time on creative activities that develop critical thinking and problem solving, not just entertainment.

Australian Government’s Healthy Living (AGHL) guidelines recommend that:

• babies and toddlers under 2 have no screen time
• pre-schoolers aged 2 to 5 have no more than 1 hour per day (maybe save that hour for a restaurant)
• children aged 5 to 17 have no more than 2 hours per day (not counting school activities).

According to AGHL, too much screen time can affect children’s physical and mental health and development:

Social, emotional and cognitive

• Difficulty with social skills and relationship building; between children and their parents
• Reduced motivation and self-esteem
• Cognitive development – screens can distract children from exploration and play
• Exposure to inappropriate content can impact future behaviour

Physical

• Disrupted sleep due to exposure to blue light (learn more about the effects of screens on sleep)
• Language delays and reduced verbal interactions
• Not getting enough physical activity that can lead to obesity
• Problems with eyesight development as a result of a lack of sunlight

Top screen time reducing tips for your family

reinstate some stopping cues

• Try screen-free family meal times, get back into the habit of interacting with each other rather than your screens.  Even if you start a conversation about something you watched on YouTube.
• Set screen-free wind-down to bed time, encourage other activities like reading actual books, drawing going for a walk together.

Break up and limit screen time

• Try setting time limits like 30 minutes on screen 30 minutes off.
• Use screen time as a reward for time and effort spent on homework and chores

Work towards screen-free days:

• AGHL suggests replacing some screen time with fun family activities.
• Start a competition with an incentive or weekly prize, for the best family achievement in cutting screen time.

Monkey see monkey do:

You could try changing the dynamic by role modelling better screen habits yourself. Pick up a book to read or newspaper (yes, they’re still a thing).

You’ll likely find that after the initial resistance your kids’ will rediscover other non-screen activities they love and you’ll get less and less resistance, especially with set routines.

Parental controls

Keeping a balance between the wonderful benefits of our devices and excessive use is made easier with a number of parental control apps with the added security of location tracking:

Apple’s family sharing has the Screen Time feature that lets parent see how much and where their kids are spending time online with reports and time limits for specific apps.

Google Family Link offers parents a simple app to set ‘digital ground rules’ on access and time on screen while still encouraging them to learn, play and explore online.

The McAfee® Safe Family App, included with eligible Optus family plans allows you to manage your kids’ usage, by device, including content restrictions, screen time rules.

Whether it’s dinnertime, bedtime or someone’s homework’s not getting done, a quick-fix to hit the pause button on distractions, is Optus Pause – our new tool to help you manage their time online.

Find balance with Optus Pause. With the push of a button, you can control and “press pause” almost all of your Optus mobile and home wi-fi connections from My Optus app.