SWITCH TO DIGITAL MONITORING AND USE SCREEN LIMIT APPS TO PROTECT TEENAGERS

Are you concerned for your child’s safety because of their increasing interest in screens and digital media? It is totally understandable to feel anxious when your child starts using mobile devices and other electronic gadgets. As children become extremely vulnerable to digital dangers once they start using a smartphone. The threats caused by the excessive use of screens and the Internet are very real. Therefore, parents need to take effective measures to keep their kids away from harmful activities on the web.

Tips for Parents 

Parents are the biggest influence on their kids, they are the one responsible for child's health, studies, good upbringing, and safety. Parents are the major source of teaching their kids appropriate and inappropriate digital behavior. Here are a few pieces of advice for parents which they can follow in order to keep their kids protected from the negative effects of screens.

1.    Switch to Digital Monitoring 

Before buying cell phones to children parents should do the following:
Talk to their kids/teens about the risks and danger of the digital life
Help them to set up privacy settings for their social media accounts
Make a precautionary checklist for them to which they can refer to, every time they use cell phones
Ensure that you kids are safe digitally and do not get addicted to screens with the help of screen limit apps

2.    Put Limitations on Screen Time 

Excess screen time brings so many issues including obesity, affected social skills, poor academic results, and much more. By using a screen limit app such as FamilyTime, parents can monitor their child’s screen time. Ideally, screen time should not be more than 3-4 hours per day. Fight the boredom by involving them in activities that are good for their health and development. Engage your kid in other activities, play with them. Make them feel that they are more important than the screens, and do things the old-fashioned way.

FamilyTime app allows parents to schedule auto screen lock on your teen’s device. This way parents can restrict their kids from the disproportionate use of screens. Want to give this app a try for free? You can! To get the app now, either visit the app store on your phone or simply click he buttons below:

3.    Be an Ideal Role Model

You need to do as you preach, if you want your child to stay away from screens for a certain period of time, you will have to portray the detachment of electronic gadgets in your own behavior as well. Often parents use their cellphones in front of their kids during mealtimes or even while driving. This behavior should be highly discouraged. Children learn whatever their parents do and repeat the same actions. It is better to avoid using mobile screens while you are having a quality time with your family.

ADDRESS YOUR TEEN’S CELLPHONE ADDICTION USING THE APP TO LIMIT SCREEN TIME

It is an undeniable fact that today’s teens love to socialize but, only through social networking sites. They feel hesitant in initiating a face-to-face conversation with other people whereas they add hundreds of people as friends on their social accounts. Undoubtedly, social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are the major reason of cell phone addiction in teenagers. The urgency to respond to a text message or to check notifications on social media apps shows the screen addiction in teenagers.

How Can You Get Your Teen Off Their Mobile Devices?

Worried about your teen’s excessive obsession with screens? Here are a few useful steps which you can follow to limit your teen’s usage of electronic gadgets:

1. Encourage Face-to-Face Socialization

Avoiding in-person interactions and preferring communication via texting have become a common practice among teenagers. As a parent, you need to make sure your child understands the importance of face-to-face conversations for strengthening their bond in any relationship. Encourage your teen to invite their friends over to spend time at your house so that they get to talk tom their friends without using their smartphones.

2. Find Resources for Children to Keep Them Busy

The more time your child has, the more addicted they become to screens. Keep your child busy. Encourage them to take part in noncircular activities such as swimming, drama classes, music or dance groups etc. Help them find their field of interests. You can even spend some quality time with them by working on different DIY projects together. By introducing new ways of keeping them busy, you can protect your teen from screen addiction.

3. Be a Role Model

Put your phone down and be attentive while talking to your teenager. If you check your cell phone during meals or receive calls while driving, you cannot expect your teenager to put their phone aside. Make sure you portray an ideal conduct to your teenagers related to the use of technology.

4. Set Ground Rules and Declare Consequences

Your teenager needs to realize that cellphone is just a privilege which can be taken away from them if they do not use it appropriately. Make “no cellphone rules” during meals, while driving and after midnight. Punish them accordingly if they don’t follow the declared rules. 

How Can an App to Limit Screen Time Help Parents?

With the help of an app to limit screen time such as Family Time, parents can:

• Monitor the screen use of their kids such as their call logs, web history, sms history and much more
• Schedule an auto screen lock on teen’s device
• Lock their teen’s mobile device remotely from a distance anytime they want

Other than that, the FamilyTime app provides several unique features which you can see by getting the app on your device.

REGULATE YOUR TEEN’S SCREEN USE WITH THE HELP OF SCREEN TIME APP

When it comes to maintaining a positive digital citizenship for your child, regulating their screen use comes first. Because a disproportionate screen time is the root cause of many digital slip-ups. Too much screen time not only exposes your child to digital traps on the web but also interferes with activities like spending time with friends and family, being physically active in sports, doing homework efficiently etc. Teenagers who use their cell phones all day long suffer from sleeping

disorders, attention problems and obesity.

Screen Time Tips for parents

For teenagers, screen time includes activities like researching for a school project, interacting with friends on social sites which usually takes most of their precious time and playing video games online. But, apart from these activities, exploring adult websites and pornographic content has also become common among teenagers which leave quite damaging effect on their minds.

Parents need to make screen time productive for their kids. Here are some tips to help you do it!

• Provide your teen chances to explore his or her interests and hidden talents. For instance, if your child likes to swim, encourage them to take part in swimming competition or if they like to act, ask them to enroll themselves in an acting class.
• Plan family time with your child and keep screens away during that time. You can take your teen to a walk or for a lunch etc.
• Keep them engaged in DIY projects. You can take help from several step-by-step tutorial available on the net. Assist your teen in their new DIY project.
• Make a rule of “no screen time” during meals and homework hours.
• Teach your teen about the challenges they might have to face online. Educate them about cyberbullying, sexting, porn addiction, violent video games and the dire consequences these digital traps may inflict on them. 

No matter what, screen time should never replace the time needed for the activities like sleeping, eating and playing. Display an ideal behavior in front of your kids. Don’t use your cell phone during mealtimes or while driving to model a substantial conduct.

Screen Time App for Parents

Most of the smart parents use screen time apps to regulate their child’s screen use. If you are still not one of those parents, you need to start considering it. Install a screen time app now and make your life easy!

One such app is FamilyTime. Using FamilyTime, parents can schedule an auto screen lock on their teen’s device. FamilyTime even enables parents to lock teen’s device anytime they want. Sounds interesting? Download the app now and explore several more valuable features! Click the buttons below to get the app!

 

Boredom Leads To Overuse Of Devices! – Handle It with a Limit Screen Time App

“I am getting bored” – parents ignore this statement. Instead of finding them a healthy activity, they leave them on their own thinking it is temporary. Kids are full of zeal and zest. They need to put their energy to work or otherwise they get bored. It usually happens when they have ample free time. This is when they usually turn to their digital devices and play games, surf the internet, watch videos or kill time on social media. Even in school days, when they have a little free time they prefer spending it on the internet.

The use of devices is the destructive outcome of boredom. This becomes a habit and soon they try to find free time so that they can use their phones. Often it happens that they have different things to do, but they go for their devices instead. These are the signs of addiction.

Overuse of technology is harmful to them in a lot of ways. They lose interest in physical activity and social interaction. It damages their metabolism, eyesight, posture and mental health with the risk of depression and anxiety. The worst outcome is screen addiction. This becomes a way of their life and stays with them for the rest of the time.

You don’t want such a life for your kids. Here is a two-step procedure to help them overcome boredom in healthy ways.

Step one: Limit the use

The first step is to limit the devices so that they don’t reach for their gadgets whenever they feel bored. You can do this by restricting their device access with a limit screen time app like FamilyTime. It applies screen locks for restriction. When the lock is activated, kids cannot use their devices. It gets deactivated on its own accord. Time is managed and set by the parents. Limited access means their devices are not going to help them. They would have to do something else. It can also be used to limit distractions and disruptions at the dinner table or at night. Try this app for free. 

Go to Google Play or Apple store or tap on the buttons below:

Step two: Constructive activities

Step two is the old-school method of involving them in healthy activities. The easiest way is to enroll them in a dance class, music lessons, drawing lessons or a game. If not you can always arrange that at home. Bring them art supplies, ask them to help you with cooking, do some deep cleaning in the living room or simply play darts. There is so much more to do once you get a break from your devices.

Keep them going!

The key is to not let them get bored and arrange different constructive things to do – anything that doesn’t result in overuse of digital devices. It is important to keep them busy as boredom also leads to depression and negativity. A limit screen time appis perfect for ensuring productive device-free time for them. So the next time they are bored and scrolling up and down on Facebook, ask them to write a poem about it instead!

Ensuring Safe Screen Time with a Limit Screen Time App

Technology and electronic devices are now considered a part of human life. It is no longer something foreign but an integrated component of our daily life. The kids literally grow up with these devices. They do most of their school and other daily tasks with the help of internet. The screen time is now called simply as “time”.

While the normalcy can’t be denied, it is also a fact that excessive or continuous device use is injurious to health. It not only affects the physical health, but also the mental well being. It is responsible for obesity and eye damage at a young age. Body pain, incorrect posture, sleep deprivation and hormonal imbalance are also caused by the blue light emitted from these devices. It increases the risk for depression and social anxiety. The human attention span is also shrinking due to it.

Reduce Screen Time

In this situation, the fitting solution seems to be the reduction of screen time and keeping it within a limit. Instead of fretting over the health of our kids why not control their device use and schedule it in a way that it becomes safe. Screen addiction is pretty much real and it works like any other drug addiction. Its withdrawal causes irritation and agitation. That is why it is important that parents control it right from the beginning.

How to Reduce Screen Time?

Technology itself has proposed a way and that is in the form of a limit screen time app. Apps like FamilyTime allow parents to schedule their kids’ device time. There are different limits or rules that can be set. It works like a digital curfew during which kids cannot use their devices.

The device locks down and the kids cannot do anything about it. They have to do something else. This way they are engaged in other activities like games and spend time with family. Apply screen limits during meals so that the whole family can have uninterrupted dinner together. During study hours so they can solely concentrate on their assignments. At night so they can have proper sleep without any beeps or dings intruding and wake up fresh in the morning. Other than that you can make a schedule for weekends and holidays when they have more time to spend with their devices. Do other activities instead like outdoor games, yoga, cooking, baking, art and crafts etc.

Get FamilyTime for your Android or iOS device.

Limiting For the Good

So it is clear that a midway solution that suits both the parents and the children is to keep the screen time within safe hours. It can be easily done using a limit screen time app. Most parents are taking up digital monitoring and parenting. Screen time management is also a part of that. Keep your kids safe and give them a better digital life, establish screen time limits for your house. It fulfills your kids’ basic need, all the while keeping the health hazards at bay.

Digital Health of Teens and Screen Limit Apps!

The current world has changed a lot in a few years in terms of the technology and now it is usual that a house has more phones than people.

We today live in a digitized society, where young people are called digital natives and parents are recognized as digital immigrants. This is because technologically, they occupy the same space but were born in different cultures. At this point in history, for youth to access to information and communications technology is not a privilege, as it was for previous generations. Now it is a right. The sooner you learn to use the law to their advantage, the better.

Parents are frightened by the risks of such digitization. They fear losing contact with their children, abducted by screens, data, music and photos. They fear them accessing inappropriate information for their age or being harassed by undesirable people through the internet. They fear that their children no longer live in the real world and abandon the sport, excursions or physical and real social contact. Parents fear their children are immersed in a parallel world and become zombies when they return to the real world. In their fears, parents make the bad choices. A bad solution they usually pick is cutting off access to the digital world. This is wrong as we must begin to become familiar with the proper use before we give them their first ever device. We need to establish the basic rules of use when the child is young, not during the war of hormones and rebellion. They have to get used to basic rules such as not allowing device use during the different meals, establish areas of the house where they cannot go on, arrange schedules logical use or distinguish between use for academic work and leisure use. I know this is a little difficult task to make kids follow your established rules but this certainly in not impossible. Screen limits apps like FamilyTime are there to help parents with all mentioned concerns. With the app parents can:

Keep an eye on their kids’ browsing history along with the date and time for each URL.

• View their bookmarks and favorites.
• Monitor call logs and check the caller details and view their call timing along with date stamps.
• Mirror contacts and view every contact saved in their kid’s phone along with the listed details.
• Watchlist contacts and get instant alerts on the connection.
• Check all of their installed apps along with app version and date of installation.
• Block questionable apps & games.
• Check location-history and stay in the know where their kids were the whole day.
• Add specific places to Places list and get alerts when their kids enter or exit those places. 
• Receive SOS alerts in case of emergency from the kids with location details.
• Receive PickMeUp alerts from your children and stay informed when it’s time to pick them up.
• Schedule auto screen locks for certain time durations such as study hours, meal breaks and sleep time etc.
• Put screen locks at any time they don’t want kids to use their smartphones.

And the list doesn’t end here. There are a lot of other features that you can discover by trying the app on your own. It is available for free download on Google play and App store. You can also get it from the buttons below:

The technology is here and is here to stay. Parents of teens today have been caught with this changed that is a luxury containing risks we can not afford. At stake is the digital health of their children. As the main character in the movie Matrix says and that could be the message many children to their parents: "I know that you fear, fear us, fear change. I do not know the future; I did not come to tell you how all this will end; just to show you how you will start. " So take a toll on your teens’ digital consumption and make use of screen limit apps to manage their digital diet every day remotely!