Column: Tips to cut down on screen time and smartphone use for kids

School starts up again soon and parents will deal fighting over video games and cell phones to fighting over schoolwork video games and cell phones It s not an ideal world we have created for ourselves but it does not have to be this way Finding a way to cut down on screen time is arguably a healthcare intervention for young brains The U S surgeon general last year called for social media platforms to include robustness warnings for children and smartphone use has been determined to intrude on sleep With three teenage boys in my home well one is but he is furiously trying to keep up with his brothers there are lessons I ve learned in keeping their screen time down to a minimum These tactics are not invariably effective and it takes constant vigilance But when I see one kid doing origami while waiting or the other working on his art projects and the other competing in not one not two but three different sports it feels worth it Exhausting but also worth it Related Articles Tea an app for women to safely talk about men they date has been breached user IDs exposed Intel cuts back spending workforce as struggling chip maker mounts comeback Russian parliament approves a bill punishing online searches for information deemed extremist UK regulator seeks special status for Apple and Google that could mandate changes for Big Tech Can you ever expect privacy in population Coldplay kiss camera saga tells us a lot about the answer Get to know your router It s not uncommon for people to get a router set up the Wi-Fi and never look at it again But parents should see the router as an untapped stock when it comes to limiting screen time Newer routers have built-in features that allow the identification and labeling of individual devices that are logged in even the ones that come from your internet provider For example Spectrum which I have used in the past offers the ability to examine each device match it in the router settings to the device s IP address and turn the wireless connection off and on at will If your internet provider doesn t offer this feature you can go the extra step and set up a wireless mesh arrangement These devices expand your Wi-Fi s reach with a second arrangement using your router as the source creating a chokepoint for every connected device The Deco mesh architecture I use has a parental feature on its accompanying app that allows me to group multiple devices under each child s name and turn off internet access to multiple devices at once And while you are in your router s settings take a minute to change the password It s a step a lot of people don t take and is a small thing to additionally secure your home especially if you have multiple smart devices tapping into your Wi-Fi Stick to old phones There is a movement toward dumb phones or feature phones but various of these can cost hundreds of dollars and I would blow a gasket if I lost a phone that cost that much I cannot imagine what my reaction would be if one of my kids lost one So when it came time to give the oldest kid now a smartphone he got my hand-me-down first-generation iPhone SE also known as an OGSE It s tiny in his big hands and it can t download the latest apps But it can make phone calls text and access the internet via its browser That wasn t his first phone though his first phone was a G Nokia a bar phone with the mobile contest Snake on it and that s pretty much it We serviced it with Mint Mobile and later with RedPocket s GB per month plan This journey took more effort and possibly was less cost efficient than absolutely adding him to our family cell phone plan Sometimes the texts took forever to transmit and the calls didn t go through But the goal was to teach him to use the phone only as a tool to call and text us and if it was absolutely necessary bring up the internet on his very slow browser Even though it was only we still haven t let him live it down that he lost it after just one year of use The Nokia mobile phone of painter August Lamm a former social media influencer with over K followers on a table at her art studio in east London on February Once boasting a social media following of more than writer and artist August Lamm has ditched her smartphone and is urging others to downgrade to dumb phones to counter social media addiction When your whole social life is online you can feel popular she says adding that she would never go back to using a smart device Photo by BEN STANSALL AFP via Getty Images And yes his younger brother who received an identical pre-owned Nokia also lost his phone about a year later He is entering freshman year of high school so all of our children s phones will soon make their way into different hands the middle kid will get the OGSE and the oldest will get my husband s older but later model phone an iPhone XR plus a slightly bigger phone plan to accommodate the increased demands of his academic and athletic pursuits He s a conscientious trainee a voracious reader and is responsible in bulk things so expanding the information plan is an appropriate step for him As for the youngest I have already identified a new feature phone to purchase for him Such phones can be determined by scouring eBay or websites like dumbwireless com which also offers system plans If you re interested in learning more about so-called dumb phones Jose Brioness has a robust YouTube channel discussing all things dumb phone and Reddit s r dumbphones neighborhood has helpful tips for beginners Make heavy use of screen usage apps My husband and I have iPhones so we use Apple s Screen Time Screen Time allows you to set up a family across Apple devices with parents being able to set up restrictions for child users You can set it up so any new app download requires permission from an adult and set a time limit for app use outside of restricted times For my purposes I do wish Screen Time allowed parents to set specific times an individual app can be used not just bedtime limits but this deficiency is why I have my mesh configuration to fall back on Microsoft Family Safety can be used across Android devices Windows PCs and Xbox consoles in the same way Screen Time can be used across Apple products Google Family Link is available on both Apple and Android devices as long as everyone has a Google account All three are free of cost on their respective platforms and allow parents to control which apps children can download and set time limits However with Apple s Screen Time categories of apps can be fully blocked for periods of time A child can get around web browsing restrictions by using a non-Edge browser or a non-Chrome browser restricted by Microsoft Family or Google Family Link respectively And if all else fails there s perpetually the option to purely take the device away Remember this is an ongoing battle Unfortunately limiting screen time is not a set-it-and-forget-it exercise Kids are ingenious when it comes to circumventing restrictions and I have much less control over their school-distributed Chromebooks which are a necessary evil now Trying to safeguard your children s online safety and mental fitness will also require regular monitoring of their behavior and habits Are they hiding out in their bedrooms being quiet Just like when they were toddlers it perhaps means they are sneaking but now with a school laptop or other device However parents alarmed at the growing drumbeat of negative news concerning children s smartphone and internet usage have options It takes more work in various respects but the payoff is healthy safe children and their freedom to enjoy a childhood without a device in hand