Psychologist tips to reduce children's screen time

In tertiary learning across both undergraduate and postgraduate psychology courses, screen addiction is also becoming a staple across both child psychology and even standard psychology coursework, exploring the widespread impacts of digital-first school and workplace cultures as well as in our social habits.

Whether you’re completing a Master’s in Psychology or even a Graduate Diploma in Psychology (Advanced), you can expect to come across some course materials on screen time, including some recommendations on how to effectively limit screen time in child psychology cases.

But you don’t need to be a psychologist to hear these insights. Below, we’ve outlined some of the key solutions recommended in studies conducted by psychology researchers across Australia, including the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS).

Here are a few psychologist-recommended tips for reducing screen time for your kids at home.

Educate your kids on the negative effects of excessive screens

For older children, researchers advocate for solutions that empower and allow kids to maintain their autonomy. This involves parents sitting down with their kids to outline some of the dangers of excessive screen time on their cognitive development and quality of life.

Here, parents can encourage their children to swap out excess free time for heart-healthy sports and physical social activities, referencing the correlation between excess screen time and motor and cognitive decline as well as the detrimental effects on psychosocial health as identified in the studies conducted and cited by the AIFS.

Alongside these health impacts, parents can also educate their children on the privacy risks associated with sharing too much information online. As cyber policies relating to child-safe content and children’s access to the web continue to evolve in the face of privacy breaches, your kids will be better informed on the extent of the dangers awaiting them online with preliminary discussions both in the classroom and reinforced at home.

Encourage productive over passive screen time

If you’ve had a discussion with your kids about the dangers of excessive screen time to which they’ve responded that internet access is an educational resource, psychologists actually advocate for validating that perspective. In truth, children learn in their classrooms how valuable internet access can be for their self-driven learning, and these educational explorations can indeed be supported at home.

In doing so, however, parents and children must form a clear distinction between enriching time spent on screens vs. passive or low-enrichment screen activities. A strong example here is using daily screentime to access language learning apps or other skills-building platforms rather than ‘doomscrolling’ on social media.

A good rule of thumb for families is to set a goal to learn one new thing online every day or every week and to share their new discovery at the dinner table.

Make tech-free activities more accessible

There are countless studies worldwide that reference and prove time and time again that we are a product of our environments. If healthy resources are made available to us, then chances are high we’ll actually use them.

The same logic applies to our kids and their relationship with their screens. If all they have for entertainment are their devices, then they’ll build habits of defaulting to screen time when seeking entertainment. Contrastingly, if a greater variety of enriching activities are available to them that encourage them to use their minds and bodies, then chances are they’ll engage in these activities more frequently.

Yes, screens, social media, and other apps for kids are designed to be addictive. But there are social aspects of tech-free activities that appeal to your children on a physiological level, and psychologists encourage parents to take advantage of those instinctive benefits.

Here, parents are encouraged to get their kids involved in their local sports teams and other social clubs that align with their interests. Families can also schedule in more outdoor together time, whether it be walking the dog daily or heading to your local park to kick a footy around.

Create tech-free zones around the house

Household rules can establish digital etiquette for children that they can then carry through to their young adult and adult years. For example, ‘no phones or screens at the dinner table’ reinforces the value of staying present when in company with others.

The same rule applies when enforcing digital hygiene guidelines around the house. For instance, parents may set a rule that phones and other personal electronic devices aren’t permitted in bedrooms during certain hours of the day (i.e. after dinner) to better support melatonin production and ensure all family members are equipped to enjoy a better night’s sleep.

The formation of these tech-free zones or limited tech areas not only removes devices from more of the social or community aspects of our daily schedules, but also helps to mitigate tech dependency by establishing clearer boundaries. Making strong distinctions about when we should and shouldn’t use our devices also encourages our kids to maintain a more active role in particular spaces and environments, like during family gatherings, dinners, and other innately social activities.

Model healthy habits for your kids

Finally, the single most important thing that parents can do for their children in combating the dangers of screen time is to practice what they preach. In households where parents are prone to lying on the couch and doomscrolling after work, kids will likely mimic those same behaviours. This is occurring in much the same way as previous generations fought to avoid eating dinner parked in front of the television, lest their kids develop the same habit.

The culture of your household is ultimately dictated by your own habits and behaviours, as your kids learn how to navigate life based on your own example. So parents looking to enforce lockboxes for phones to avoid their kids pulling them out at the dinner table – be prepared to hold yourselves to this same standard.

Keep daily screen habits balanced at home with these tips

Managing screen time at home can definitely be tricky in a digital-first age, but what we can keep track of is the context within which we use our devices daily. Are our screens enriching our lives, or pulling us apart? Are they strengthening our minds or turning them to mush?

For older kids who have graduated from measures like parental control apps, these questions are best raised positively and with autonomy. After all, they’re the ones in digital-first classrooms on a daily basis and completing homework assignments using their devices at home. And most importantly, it’s their own personal health and wellbeing in question at the end of the day.