Piloting the Digital Plane - Part 2
In my article last week, I iterated that Dr Kristy Goodwin proposed six areas of boundary consideration in relation to raising children in a digital age - How much? What? When? Where? With whom? How? We covered ‘How much?’ and ‘What?’.
This week we will look at ‘When?’ and ‘Where?’
When?
- To ensure that screens don’t adversely impact young people’s sleep or learning, parents need to help their children and teens establish a digital curfew (ideally 60 minutes before sleep should be screen-free).
- There are two critical times of the day when parents need to be cautious about their child’s or teens’ technology use: before school and before sleep. i) The use of fast-paced screen action before school can impact their attention spans and dysregulate their sensory systems. ii) If devices are used before bed, they can adversely impact the quality and quantity of sleep children can accumulate each night. This seriously impacts their learning and mental health.
- Bedrooms should be device-free. The use of devices at night-time is also associated with increased cyber-safety and cyber-bullying risks. At night, your child’s ‘logical part of the brain’ switches off and the ‘emotional centre’ switches on. In this heightened emotional state, your child is more susceptible to making poorer digital decisions.
- Establish a landing zone - Identify a specific place in your home (kitchen counter, study, buffet, lounge room) where all the digital devices go each night for charging.
- Empty their sensory cups - To help calm children’ nervous systems, provide activities that enable them to empty their sensory cup. This can include anything physically active (preferably outdoors).
- Balance their screen-time and green-time - Children need outdoor, unstructured activities every single day (including at least two hours in natural sunlight).
Where?
- Families need to establish, again in consultation with their child/teen, what are the no-go tech zones in the family house? Kristy suggests bedrooms, bathrooms, meal areas and cars (apart from long-distance road trips).
- Our children and teens are often playing in digital playgrounds, and no one is supervising. We need parents and educators to know the apps, websites, TV programs and games that children and adolescents are using.
- The easiest and most logical way to do this is if technology is used in open places in the home. As the pilot of the digital plane, parents need to prescribe exactly where devices can and cannot be used in the home.
- Keeping technology in publicly accessible areas of the home and school has a dual benefit. i) It helps parents and educators to be involved in children’s digital lives. ii) The neuroscience confirms that children’s and teens’ brains are wired to take risks because their prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for logical decision-making) is not fully developed. However, our kids now have access to powerful digital devices which can be used to easily share and curate their mistakes (such as sharing private information, or posting a nude image they’ll later regret, or sending a nasty message). If our children are using devices in bedrooms or hidden away from their parents/carers/educators, then they may be more likely to engage in risky activities.
Proactively establishing and maintaining clear boundaries from a young age regarding technology ‘time’ and ‘place’ will result in far less reactionary parenting.
The pilot needs to determine and lodge his ‘flight plan’ before take-off!
The benefits of technology can then be harnessed, our children will have added safety, and healthy behaviours will become embedded over time.
Peter Grimes | Headmaster
Workshop $80
