How to Have Healthy Video Games, TV, and Internet Habits for Your Family
Excellent sources of education and entertainment for youths can be TV, interactive video games, and therefore the Internet. But an excessive amount of screen time can have unhealthy side effects.
Kids should have a large type of free-time activities, like spending time with friends and playing sports, which might help develop a healthy body and mind.
Screen Time
Here are some ways to form productive kids’ screen time:
- Encourage kids to try and do something non-screen related by stocking any rooms that have an IPTV, computer, or other devices with lots of other non-screen entertainment.
- Keep out of kids’ bedrooms the TVs, iPads, and other screens .
- Turn off all screens during meals.
- Don’t allow your child to look at TV while doing homework.
- Treat screen time as a privilege that youngsters have to earn, not a right that they are entitled to.
- Try a weekday ban. Searching out extra family time during the week is made tough by schoolwork, sports activities, and job responsibilities. You may have more family togetherness time to spend on meals, games, and physical activity during the week by recording shows or save video games for weekends.
- Set an honest example. Limit your own screen time.
- Check the TV listings and program reviews for shows that you and your family can watch together.
- Preview programs. confirm you think that they’re appropriate before your kids watch them.
- Use the ratings. Age-group rating tools typically appear in newspaper TV listings and onscreen during the primary 15 seconds of some TV programs and are developed for a few TV programs.
- Use screening tools. You can block TV programs and flicks you do not want your kids to determine as Many new standard TV sets have internal V-chips (V stands for violence).
Come up with a family TV schedule. Make it something the whole family agrees on. Then post the schedule in an exceedingly visible household area (like on the refrigerator) so everyone knows which programs are okay to watch and when. And confirm to show off the TV when the “scheduled” program is over rather than channel surfing for something else to observe. - To determine if the programming is OK for your child, watch TV and play video games along with your child.
- Find out about other TV policies. About their TV-watching policies and kid-friendly programs, confer with other parents, your doctor, and your child’s teachers about their recommendations.
- Offer fun alternatives to screen time. Suggest alternatives like playing a parlor game, starting a game of hiding and seek, or playing outside if you wish your child to show off the screen.
Talking is very important
Share your own beliefs and values and talk to kids about what they see on screens. If something you do not approve of appears on the screen, shut down the screen and use the chance to speak together with your child.
Here are some suggestions:
- “When those men dawned that fight, Do you think that it had been OK? What else could they need doing? What would you’ve got done?”
- If certain people or characters are mistreated or discriminated against, speak about why it is vital to treat everyone fairly despite their differences.
- You can use programs and games to clarify confusing situations and express your feelings about difficult topics (sex, love, drugs, alcohol, smoking, work, behavior, family life). from what they see on screens, Teach your kids to question and learn.
ALSO READ: Video Games – What Parents Should Know
Video and Interactive Computer Games
Look at the ratings.
The ratings range from EC (meaning Early Childhood), which indicates that the sport is suitable for teenagers ages 3 and older, to AO (for Adults Only), which indicates that violent or graphic sexual content makes it appropriate just for adults.
Preview the games.
Before letting kids play, it’s still important to preview the games despite the ratings. The game’s rating might not match what you are feeling is acceptable for your child.
Help kids get perspective on the games.
Monitor how the games are affecting your kids. Discuss the sport and help them understand how the violence that’s portrayed is different from what occurs within the globe if they appear more aggressive after spending time playing a specific game.
Internet Safety
Become computer literate.
Find out how to dam objectionable material.
Keep the pc in a very common area.
Keep it where you’ll be able to watch and monitor your kids. Avoid putting a computer in a very child’s bedroom.
Share an email account with younger children.
That way, you’ll monitor who is sending them messages.
Teach your child about Internet safety.
Discuss rules for your kids to follow while they’re using the net, like never revealing personal information, including address, telephone number, or school name or location.
Bookmark your child’s favorite sites.
Your child will have quick access and be less likely to create a typo that might cause inappropriate content.
Spend time online together.
Teach your kids to appropriate online behavior.
Monitor kids’ use of chat rooms.
Make your kids aware that posting messages to speak rooms reveals a child’s email address to others.
Find out about online protection elsewhere.
In school, after-school centers, friends’ homes, or any place where kids could use a computer without your supervision, learn about the web protection offered in them.