How to Set Screen Time Boundaries for Your Kids 🎥

Since technology is so integrated into our everyday lives, it’s hard to know when to take a break—no matter how old you are.

It’s difficult for parents to limit our own screen time, let alone our children’s. So how can we set realistic boundaries that work for the whole family?

We gathered Dr. Lisa Damour, NYT Best-Selling Author and Clinical Psychologist, Journalist Reena Ninan, Dr. Michael Rich, Director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Digital Wellness Lab, and Kaitlyn Hsu, Director of Communications at Bloom, to weigh in on productive methods for implementing screen limits at home. 

Our experts’ #1 suggestion for setting effective screen time limits is to lead by example. If you set boundaries that you, the parent, do not also abide by, it makes it hard for your kids to follow the rules. By setting a good example, parents encourage their children to put their devices down and join a school club, play outside, or spend time with family. Rather than banning devices, show your child that they can balance screen time with real life. 

According to Dr. Michael Rich, “That energy is better spent on helping your child learn to use screens in healthy and productive ways—and learning to replace daily screen time limits with daily non-screen minimums.”

Here are 4 key tips for setting screen time limits in your household:

1. Ban devices from certain household rooms or gatherings
• These rules, when followed by both kids and parents, will make everyone in your family more present in each other’s company.  
2. Explore new devices together
• Though your child may be more tech savvy than you, parents can serve as the executive functions of impulse control, future thinking, and overall understanding of how these devices may or may not benefit their child.
3. Find offline activities that make your kids happy
• By finding purpose and happiness offline, kids will realize that their whole world does not fit into a tiny screen.
4. Have their usernames and passwords
• You do not have to monitor your kids all the time, but because you can, their online behavior changes.

Children are more likely to resonate with household rules that are reasonable, consistent, and that their parents also follow. By becoming the change that they want to see, parents will set successful screen time boundaries. 

Here’s what experts have to say:

Parents, wondering 5 steps you can take to balance screen time? Check out this article.