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Controlling screen time for children and teens is harder than it sounds. This week Screenagers gives some "hacks" to decrease time on screens - are you up for the challenge? Which hacks decrease undesired screen time? This is the question to ask kids and teens this week. From that discussion, see if they, ideally along with you, will choose to adopt one of these ideas for 24 or even 72 hours. It’s a Hack Challenge—and who doesn’t like a challenge? I say “ideally along with you” because we are all in this together. But just because we all have challenges around managing screen time does not mean that as parents we should take a hands-off approach. I hear people say about kids that ”They just need to learn by themselves to manage screen time.” The [...]

Screens are quickly taking over every aspect of daily life, and are already replacing regular interpersonal communication, but the rise of screens at mealtimes is particularly disturbing. In the article below, written by Cris Rowan, the benefits of screen-free mealtimes is explored in depth. The evening meal is traditionally recognized as a social occasion involving family members, a table/chairs, and a home cooked dinner. When I was a child, dinners involved my two brothers and I suffering through an hour-long event where we had to listen to my father go on and on about work issues which were totally unrelated to us. I did though look forward to our family dinner ritual where each of us got to relay one good thing and one bad thing that happened to us that day…and we weren’t allowed [...]

Currently, Fortnite is all the rage among children and adolescents who play video games. But more and more we’re finding that it is having negative, sometime dangerous effects in their lives. The following article, by Beth Teitell and published in the Boston Globe gives more insight. “They are not sleeping. They are not going to school. They are dropping out of social activities. A lot of kids have stopped playing sports so they can do this.” Michael Rich, a pediatrician and director of the Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital, was talking about the impact “Fortnite: Battle Royale” — a cartoonish multiplayer shooter game — is having on kids, mainly boys, some still in grade school. “We have one kid who destroyed the family car because he thought his parents [...]

Teens and cell phones bring up an ever changing landscape of pitfalls parents are trying to help them avoid. One huge pitfall? Sexting. The latest question, answered by Screenagers in the article below, is about laws effecting sexting within the teen demographic. Please read below to find out how to help your teen understand sexting and it's consequences better. Teenagers are budding with sexual energy. Mix that with cell phones and it can be a complicated combination. According to a JAMA Pediatrics report from last April that analyzed 39 studies of just over 110,000 under 18-year-olds (the mean age was 15.16 years, but ages ranged from 11-17 years)— it was found that roughly 15% of teenagers send sexts and 28% receive them. It is so important to have an open line of communication with preteens [...]

Self-harm is becoming more and more prevalent among children. As it does they are looking for different ways to harm themselves. Below is a study about the lengths children are willing to go to in order to self-harm. Children as young as 12 are competing with each other to commit worsening acts of self-harm on websites, a groundbreaking study reveals. They described wanting to become “better self-harmers” and match horrific injuries they saw on Tumblr, one of the sites they chose because posts receive little scrutiny. It is the first time researchers have been able to lift the lid on experience of such sites, after securing approval to interview young self-harmers. It will fuel growing concern sparked by the death of Molly Russell, 14, who took her life after viewing self-harm images on Instagram. This weekend, [...]