An inclusive, independent boarding and day school for grades 9-12 in Burlington, Vermont.
Ten Teen Tech Tips
To Help Limit Screen Time in your Family
Have a real discussion with your child about the potential consequences to excessive technology use.
Do a privacy and safety check. Make sure your teen has appropriate privacy settings on social media, messaging apps, and other sites.
Involve your teen in creating family expectations around technology use. This means creating a list of rules and outlining consequences and incentives together. As much as you can, try to keep the rules the same for everyone (even you).
Keep technology out of the bedroom. This will improve sleep, but also prevent teens from isolating.
Make sure your child has an alarm clock so they don’t rely on their phone to get up in the morning.
Create a docking station for the family devices to encourage everyone to leave technology out of sleeping spaces.
Let them know you’re paying attention to screen time, gently. This can be as simple as, "You’ve been playing that game for an hour. Why don’t we take a break in a few minutes and go walk the dog."
Help your teen find an activity that engages them socially. Volunteering, getting a job, or even joining a club can be helpful.
Encourage physical activity. You can even make it a family challenge, like running a 5k together or learning to rock climb with your child.
Help your teen track how they are using technology and how different uses make them feel. For example, many teens report that spending too much time on social media reduces their self-esteem and can make them feel depressed.
Create space for exceptions to the rule. For example, a video game tournament or a movie marathon can be fun. These can be social or family events! Be thoughtful about when and how to make exceptions.
Have a discussion about different kinds of technology use. Some families believe that certain kinds of technology use might be positive and productive, while others have more negative consequences.
