Screens are a huge part of modern life, and there is simply no avoiding them, especially for children. They are at home, school, and even nurseries, so many kids have grown up surrounded by them. If you’ve ever wondered how much time children spend on screens, it is estimated that the average 3- to 4-year-old spends about 3 hours a day in front of a screen!

This BargainMax blog will take you through how much screen time your child should have, the positives and negatives of screen time, and how to manage it in a healthy way.

How does screen time affect your child?

Screen time for kids has multiple benefits; however, excessive screen time can cause issues. The main problem is that your child may develop several eye problems, including eye fatigue and nearsightedness, which can cause discomfort, blurred vision, and frequent headaches. Too much screen time has also been linked to obesity and diabetes, as it encourages a sedentary lifestyle.

Additionally, it is believed that excessive amounts of time looking at a screen can also affect your child’s sleep. Little ones who spend hours in front of a screen take longer to fall asleep and experience poor-quality sleep. This can slow their development and make them struggle to pay attention during the day.

The most common effects of screen time: eye problems, obesity, and trouble sleeping.

Does screen time affect your child’s behaviour and development?

Many children are very tech-savvy now and can often be quicker than adults when it comes to navigating technology. This is great for their future and education, but excessive screen time can negatively affect your child’s behaviour and development in a few ways.

They can have shorter attention spans, often zoning in and out of conversations and even lessons. They may struggle to focus on one thing for long and quickly jump to other things, making it harder to retain important information and sustain focus for long periods.

Children who spend too much time in front of a screen often feel tired more quickly, which affects their ability to develop and grow, as they are too tired to learn or take part in activities. Motor skills can even be negatively affected by touchscreens if children spend more time using them rather than toys and tools that require manual movement.

Can screen time affect children’s behaviour?: Yes, excessive screen time can have negative consequences on a child’s attention span and energy levels. 

How much screen time is healthy?

To answer the difficult question of “how much screen time is too much?”, ultimately, it all depends on your child’s age. There is no number set in stone for an unhealthy amount of screen time, due to ongoing research on the positives and negatives of screen time for kids. 

However, it is recommended that 2-5-year-olds limit screen time to 1 hour. Anything over this can be an excessive amount! For older children, aged 6-17 years old, generally no more than 2 hours of screen time is advised. If your child goes over 2 hours, they could be at risk of having too much screen time!

The positives and negatives of screen time

There are multiple positives and negatives to screen time for kids, all that is required is a healthy balance. Your child can benefit from screen time, but they can also experience negative effects if they use screens excessively.

Positives of screen time

• Your child can learn so much from using screens through the internet, fun educational games, and educational activities. There is a wealth of knowledge on the internet that your child can explore and retain.

• It can improve visual intelligence and hand-eye coordination.

• It can nurture social connections. Especially for a child who struggles to communicate or make friends.

• Technology can help them perform well academically.

• Games and activities can build vital skills such as creativity, puzzle-solving, and teamwork.

Negatives of screen time

• Excessive screen time can affect sleeping due to the blue light screens emit.

• Screen activities can increase anxiety through central nervous system arousal.

• Kids can become inactive and spend too much time inside.

• There is a risk of danger with inappropriate websites, scams, misinformation, and the ability to meet strangers online.

• Memory skills can decrease. Younger generations can often be more forgetful due to time spent with technology and a daily habit with screens.

How to manage your screen time for kids

So, how do you strike the perfect balance of screen time for kids, and how do you manage it so they can reap the benefits without the downsides? Our tips below can help you to best manage your child’s screen time to find a happy medium.

Create screen time rules

Set clear family rules for your child and everyone in your home to follow about how best to use screens and technology. These can be followed to reduce any risks of overexposure, and so your child clearly knows how they should use technology.

If your child doesn’t listen, has a tantrum when they need to come off, or refuses to stop, make sure to set repercussions in place. This could be taking away their favourite device for the entire day or a few days. Doing this helps your child understand how to use technology and follow the rules so they don’t lose their privileges for a day or more!

Another great rule could be to avoid using screens before bed, as they can disrupt sleep patterns, even for us adults. In the hours before bed, encourage playing with toys, reading, taking a bath, going for an evening stroll to the park, or playing board games. You could lock away all technology during these hours and keep it out of your child's reach.

Start managing screen time when they’re young

It is best to manage and limit screen time for kids when they are young. If you already have a teenager or pre-teen, it may be too late to set rules, boundaries, and limits. Instead, you will have to focus on making their screen time as productive as possible and on helping reduce the time they spend on their devices.

With young children, you can reduce screen time and set rules so they can learn more easily, since they haven’t formed a habit of it yet. You can treat screens as any other activity where you will talk about it, engage with them while they are using them, and talk through the best uses of screen time and what you are monitoring. 

Create non-screen family activities for your young child to make reducing screen time an appealing option. This will help create healthy, balanced screen time that they can make a habit of now and into the future.

Use parental controls

When your child is having their healthy dose of screen time, it is vital to set up parental controls on their devices. Doing this can help prevent your child from encountering dangers or threats, such as malicious people, scams, and dodgy websites. Parental controls give your child the freedom to do what they please on their device while keeping them safe online.

It is vital to talk through the dangers of the internet and social media with your child so they can also understand why they must be protected. 

With parental controls, you cannot only stop your child from visiting dodgy or inappropriate sites but also limit their screen time on their device. Having this in place requires your child to find other activities and helps keep them safe from dangers, including those that can arise from excessive screen time.

Schedule screen time

Create a schedule for your child’s screen time that they can make into a healthy habit.

In your schedule, plan for recreational screen time, which can be up to one to two hours per day. Break this screen time into small chunks during peak times of the day when your child will want to play on their devices. During the week, this could be 15 minutes in the morning before school, 30-40 minutes before you eat, and around 30-40 minutes right after you eat, to wind down with a programme. At the weekend, it could be similar, but in shorter chunks, spread out across the day if you wish.

Make sure any recreational screen time ends around an hour before your child’s bedtime, to ensure they do other activities to help them sleep.

Store technology in an unreachable place

Following your rules and screen time schedule that you can create, store any of your child’s technology in an unreachable place when they shouldn’t use it. 

Doing this frees your child from the temptation of technology, as they can’t see their devices. They are more likely to do other activities if they know they can’t access their technology yet.

Embrace some screen time

 

With the ever-changing technology of today, screens are never going to disappear. Because of this, it is ideal to see them as something positive – if your child doesn’t go overboard with using screens. Embrace screens and positive screen time to help your child with their education, set aside small amounts of time for fun, and stay connected with family and friends.

Encourage playing with toys or outdoor play

Screen time for kids often means staying indoors, which is not healthy for any child. So, encourage other play activities and outdoor play to get your child much-needed fresh air, as well as a break from screens.

Explore fun outdoor play equipment for your garden, such as a swing set or playhouse, to entice your child to head outside. Set up fun games with outdoor toys such as footballs, tennis equipment, or encourage a bike ride to make the outdoors seem more exciting than their screens.

If the weather is terrible for some outdoor fun, entice your child to play with other toys. Great alternatives to tablets and other screens for kids are:

• Kids' board games – These bring exciting family fun and are great for your child’s brain, too. They help to stimulate the parts of the brain that aid with patience, memory, strategy, and creativity!
  

• Children's books – A relaxing and soothing way to engage with entertainment and stories. Fiction, fact books, and even magazines are great ways to keep your child entertained without screens.
  

• Craft kits – Creating something is not only buckets of fun, but it’s great for boosting imagination and creativity. Your child can have a sense of achievement and can experiment while crafting. Some craft kits, such as slime kits, are brilliant to use for creating a calming sensory experience with satisfying textures to explore.
  

• Construction toys – Taking part in constructive play nurtures your child’s creativity and develops motor skills and problem-solving skills. Plus, it provides them with endless fun for hours on end!

Lead by example

Your child often learns by observing, so they can easily copy and learn your behaviours. As a result, it is ideal to lead by example when it comes to screen time. Try to reduce your recreational screen time and find other activities to do with your child, as you will both benefit.

If they see you constantly on your phone or other device, your child will easily mirror this and adopt your bad screen-time habits. If you are addicted to technology, your child is likely to be too, and they can create a technology dependency.

Alternative toys for reducing screentime at BargainMax

Now that you know how much screen time is healthy and how to find the perfect balance, you can try our guidelines above to help your child and reduce screen time. Screens aren’t entirely bad, as they can offer many ways for children to learn new things, but it’s important to take a break from them.

One of the best and most motivating ways to do so is to replace your child’s screen time with an activity that is as enticing, or even more so. As such, our vast collection of affordable outdoor toys provides the perfect solution. With plenty of fun and affordable options from kids’ trampolines to kids’ scooters, our range can help the whole family to reduce their screen time and enjoy some fresh air!