Internet and screen rules your children should abide by at home

Is a tech addiction making your teenager avoid family and forget their homework? An expert has revealed the red flags you should watch out for — and how you can manage your child’s screen time.

Internet time should be a reward, not a right, and parents the master controllers of wi-fi to curb kids’ addiction to screens.

Clinical psychologist Brad Marshall said strict time limits, which included homework and assignments, would reduce conflict and help teach teenagers time management.

But the author of The Tech Diet for your Child and Teen said physically trying to take away devices was a recipe for disaster.

“This can be anything from swearing and yelling to breaking stuff, all the way to full-blown family and domestic violence. Controlling the internet and the devices all without any objection is some kind of teenage utopia,” Mr Marshall said.

“But if this is not achievable, put your energy into controlling the internet and trust that the devices are boring without it.”

Mr Marshall, who has helped hundreds of families address gaming disorder, said reframing screen time as a reward was “every parent’s most powerful bargaining chip”.

Mum Chanelle Gulieri keeps an eye on daughter Mia, 14. Picture: Wayne Taylor

He advocates using apps that allow parents to create individual profiles for each member of the family.

“This allows you to turn internet access off and on for different children depending on their age, behaviour, and so on. This is all managed through an app on your phone and is relatively easy to change on the fly,” he said.

“Use it to disable all features apart from the basic ones.”

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Mr Marshall said there was no one-size-fits-all model for prescribed hours for screen time.

He said a better solution was to create a schedule of their daily activities and work backwards from there.

Chanelle Giulieri, of Camberwell, said she negotiated screen time with her daughter Mia, 14.

Ms Giulieri said Mia’s phone use “wasn’t too bad overall”.

“It’s more of a problem on weekends when it can be difficult to manage or from 8 until 9 at night when I am busy and it’s harder to keep an eye on her all the time,” she said. “Parents don’t always set a good example.”

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