How to avoid bad habits with your kid’s gaming and screen time
Vicky Leta / Mashable
Welcome to this installment of our limited run Small Humans advice column! Senior Features Writer Rebecca Ruiz and Director of Special Projects Alex Hazlett will be answering questions about screen time and digital family life during the pandemic. You can read our the rest of our advice here and here. Submit a question at smallhumans@mashable.com.
Is all screen time created equal? Meaning, is there good screen time, learning and chatting with friends vs. gaming and watching videos? –Ada
What's the best way to start introducing a 2-year-old to screen time without creating bad habits? –Joy
All screen time is not created equal, and the guidelines are starting to catch up to that understanding. For example, FaceTime chats with grandparents, which used to be considered a verboten form of screen time for children younger than 18 months, is now considered acceptable at young ages. Especially now, when many grandparents are cut off from extended family, those video chats matter more than ever.
For older kids, the challenge is to place reasonable limits on screen time based on activity. Video games can be a shared family activity, improve spatial reasoning, and provide a much-needed link with friends during social distancing. Certainly sometimes we all enjoy zoning out with an episode of television. But if your kid's sleep, attitude, or school work suffer, try pulling back. When it comes to social media in particular, which tends to take place on a phone, there are more pitfalls related to mental health, and also strategies to help your kids learn how to avoid those pitfalls.