Parents have always had to worry about their children's health and safety.These days, they have to worry about their online safety, too.
And a growing body of research suggests that parents can have a big impact when it comes to minimizing their kids' risks from spending too much time online."Parents can be a really important influence in terms of social media behaviors of their children," says Dr.Jason Nagata at the University of California, San Francisco.
He and his colleagues recently published a report in JAMA Network Open that looked at studies on the impacts of various social media related policies across the U.S.and the globe.
It found that parental monitoring of kids' social media habits is largely effective in minimizing harms of screen time and social media.Here are five ways parents can help their kids use their digital devices more safely:"Even before they got their personal devices, we used tools to monitor screen time," says Elizabeth Hoover, mother of two teenage girls aged 15 and 17.That was when her daughters shared a family iPad.Then, in middle school, they got their own smartphones.
"My oldest daughter got it in seventh grade," says Hoover."And then the younger one – much to my older daughter's dismay – got it in sixth grade."Want the latest stories on the science of healthy living? Subscribe to NPR's Health newsletter.But Hoover, who recently retired from her job as the chief technology officer at Alexandria City Public Schools in Virginia, set down clear rules on what they could and couldn't do on their phones.
At the time, the girls used their phones mostly to stay in touch with their friends via text and video calls, she says."They could not download an app without my permission," she adds."There were specific time restraints around different apps.
They did not have Instagram and they did not have Snapchat." Hoover also insisted on having no devices at the dinner table and at bedtime – both recommended by the American Academy o...