Navigate Digital: Healthy Tech Habits to Empower your Children

Navigating the digital landscape in a bid to empower your children with healthy tech habits is a challenge. In today’s technology-driven world, children are immersed in a digital environment, with lots of screen activity from a very young age. YouTube, social media, apps, games, and tech have all changed how children interact, learn, and engage with the world around them.

Within this blog, we take the opportunity to outline some healthy tech habits for you to implement at home and encourage a positive, healthy approach to tech for you and your children.

Establishing Clear Boundaries For Children and Managing Tech-Free Zones: Healthy Tech Habit Practices

Setting clear boundaries around screen time is essential for promoting balance and preventing tech addiction. Establishing designated tech-free times and zones in your home, such as during meals, playtime, and bedtime, lays the foundation to encourage other healthy tech habits. Parental controls can be easily and effectively utilised to support the management of device usage and curb excessive social media and gaming engagement. 

For parents hoping to monitor their children’s screen time and online activity, Apple’s Screen Time API parental controls offer a comprehensive and user-friendly solution. Built into iOS devices, Screen Time allows parents to set limits on app usage, block certain apps, and filter websites, ensuring a safer and more balanced digital experience for children.

With Screen Time, parents can establish daily or weekly time limits for specific app categories, such as games or social media. This ensures a healthy tech habit balance between screen time and other activities and helps parents manage digital time. Parents can also completely block apps deemed inappropriate or restrict their use to specific times of the day.

Additionally, Apple’s Screen Time API provides web filtering options, allowing parents to limit their children’s access to certain websites or categories of websites. This helps protect them from inappropriate content and ensures they are exploring a safe and age-relevant online world.

Overall, Apple’s Screen Time parental controls empower parents to manage their children’s digital environment effectively, fostering healthier tech habits that are balanced.

For Android users, Google Family Link is a parental control app that helps parents manage their children’s Android device usage. With Family Link, parents can:

• Set digital ground rules – Establish daily screen time limits, and bedtime curfew for the device, and approve/block specific apps.
• Monitor activity – View reports on app usage, location, and device information.
• Lock device remotely – Pause access to the device as needed, like during dinner or bedtime.
• Guide discoveries – Get recommendations on teacher-approved quality apps for kids.
• Set device downtime – Designate downtime where only certain apps can be used.
• Manage purchases – Approve or decline kids’ requests for in-app purchases.
• Track location – Locate your child’s device on a map when outdoors. Be mindful of this tool and ensure it is in safe hands to protect your children.

With its in-depth parental controls and easy-to-use interface, Google Family Link provides parents visibility and helpful tools to achieve the right balance of independence and oversight as their children engage with technology.

Encouraging Healthy Tech Habits: Moderation And Engagement Beyond The Screen

We are all guilty of picking up our phones when we are bored, however, modeling a different option to your children is essential to create healthy tech habits. Avoid resorting to screens as a default solution to boredom. It’s an unhealthy tech habit and sets a bad example.

Instead, encourage alternative activities such as outdoor play, creative pursuits, and social interactions to establish that online time needs to be balanced with offline pursuits. Empower children to self-regulate their technology consumption and develop a mindful approach as a healthy tech habit. Engage in physical activities outdoors, cook a family meal, play board games, and start creative projects together to demonstrate healthy, family-focused routines.

This exploration of new things moderates and allows your children to find hobbies other than engaging with devices. These small steps pave the way to healthy tech habits.

Addressing Online Safety As A Healthy Tech Habit

Open and honest conversations about online safety are crucial in protecting children from cyberbullying, privacy violations, and exposure to potentially harmful content. Instil age-appropriate digital literacy skills, emphasising the importance of making good choices online. Closely monitor underage use of social media, video games, and access to content to ensure a safe and positive online experience.

Whilst we want to promote healthy tech habits, we do not want to scare children so they hesitate to use tech. Explaining why you as a parent must monitor and support your child’s use of tech, creates a positive and critical dialogue. It encourages children to understand why it’s important to stay safe online and allows them to connect with you as you explain it’s a part of care an responsibility as a parent and grown-up.

As aforementioned Apple’s Screen Time API controls and Google Family Link provide some support for parents. Kaspersky Safe Kids is another option. Its key features include:

• Activity Monitoring – Track which apps and websites children are using and set time restrictions, creating healthy tech expectations and boundaries.
• Location Tracking – View kids’ real-time location on a map when they are out, ensuring their safety should an accident happen.
• App Blocking – Block access to inappropriate apps or limit daily time spent in specific apps, protecting from potentially age-inappropriate content.
• Web Filtering – Block unsuitable websites and content categories.
• Screen Time Limits – Set daily schedules for when devices can or cannot be used.
• Child Profiles – Create customised settings based on each child’s needs and age.
• Panic Button – Kids can press the emergency button in the app to instantly call for help.
• Usage Reports – Review detailed reports on your child’s online activities.

With Kaspersky Safe Kids, parents can find the right balance between granting online freedom and maintaining digital safety for their children across all connected devices.

Leading Healthy Tech Habits by Example: Positive Tech Role Models

Children are keen observers, and they often copy the behaviors of their adult role models. Set a positive example of healthy tech habits by putting your own phone away, limiting your own screen time, and turning off notifications. Demonstrate to kids that real-world connections and living in the present moment are more valuable than digital distractions.

This video with Lauren Allison, discusses empowerment through technology in relation to mums, inspiring parents to ensure they also adopt healthy tech habits and digital balance.

Unplugging for Fun: Embracing Tech-Free Experiences

Adopting healthy tech habits can be so enjoyable! Plan regular family outings and activities that encourage engagement away from devices. Schedule regular digital detox periods as a household, creating opportunities to reconnect and engage in non-tech-related activities. 

Take a walk, bike ride, visit the park or have a picnic together. This demonstration of how to have fun unplugged will inspire children and encourage their love of the outdoors.

Responding to Tech Tantrums with Calm and Understanding

Setting clear expectations and consequences for device obsession and inappropriate tech behaviour or tantrums may seem daunting. In response to a tech tantrum, we recommend avoiding emotional reactions. Instead, address the underlying causes of tech tantrums and work together to find solutions, especially for children aged ten and under. 

By implementing these strategies early, closely monitoring children’s technology use, and providing positive guidance, we can empower children to step away from devices and take time to regulate. Then then leads to understanding, support and the implementation of a healthy relationship to tech. This will enable them to thrive socially, emotionally, and academically in our increasingly digital world and pave the way for healthy tech habits as an adult.

To ensure healthy tech habits as a parent, you don’t always need to be critical but rather mindful and supportive. Encourage your children show empathy with their frustrations and show the opportunity to take part in other activities that are fun and constructive.

Co-Viewing Media Thoughtfully: Educational and Engaging Content

When allowing recreational screen time, opt for educational shows and games that promote learning and active participation. Avoid passive tech consumption and encourage critical thinking and engagement with the content. This will encourage your children to be critical of their own use of devices and by bringing children into the conversation of determining what they deem are healthy tech habits, is extremely empowering and encourages agency. We believe this is the most powerful healthy tech habit of all!

Whilst technology overuse can be detrimental, online educational resources also offer many benefits for children’s development when used purposefully. Sites like Learning Mole provide free and purchased engaging, interactive content across core subjects that reinforces classroom learning. Using engaging platforms sets the bar and eliminates mindless scrolling. It promotes tech as an educational tool, which is an extremely healthy tech habit for young people.

Children can explore websites like this in a safe digital environment and is an opportunity for parents to monitor children’s usage and co-view content with them. When supervised appropriately, educational sites can positively supplement instruction, motivate children to learn through technology they enjoy, and reinforce topics in a fun, discovery-based way. 

This inquiry-based approach to digital promotes academic skills, digital literacy, and an enthusiasm for learning through digital channels. The key is balance, supervision, and utilising technology to enrich education, not replace parent-child engagement.

Adopting some of these holistic and mindful approaches to your children’s technology habits will ensure a great start to life and promote positive and healthy tech habits that will last a lifetime.