Parental Controls for Electronics

My name is David Alten. You could call me Dr. David. I am a Pediatrics resident at University of Rochester Medical Center and I am going to be a general pediatrician! When I see kids in clinic for their yearly check ups, I often ask them "How is your sleep?" It feels like most of the time, the kid (or more often their parent) says that they don't go to sleep until way late! When I ask why, I often get the same answer - they are on their phone! From Tik Tok and Among Us to Netflix and You Tube, there are lots of reasons phones are fun and entertaining - and lots of reasons they prevent us from getting the sleep we need!

Kids need way more sleep than adults. School-aged kids (6-12) should really be getting 10-12 hours of sleep while teenagers should be getting 8-10 hours of sleep - not the 6 or 7 your teen probably thinks they need! Sleep is also very important. Not getting enough good sleep can increase the chances someone gets lots of different bad health effects, including obesity, diabetes, ADHD, and more. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that sleep deprivation is a "public health epidemic.” A big part of that epidemic is kids using their screens until late at night. To combat this, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children should be off their phones for 30 minutes before bedtime. 

So what can we as parents and Pediatricians do about this "screen time insomnia"? Well, you can use your child's phone or tablet to help them sleep! There are free, easy-to-use, built in parental controls on most mobile devices including iPhones, iPads, Android phones, and Android tablets. As part of my work in residency, we developed two flyers to help set parents like you set up these parental controls. There is one for "Screen Time" on iOS and one for "Family Link" on Android and they have step-by-step tutorials for setting a “digital bedtime” on your child’s device. At the bottom, there is a QR code that directs you to more extensive parental control options if you are feeling ambitious.

The idea is that you can set a "bedtime" for your child's mobile device (phone or tablet), after which most of the fun apps that keep them awake are blocked. This way, you don't have to fight with them to take their phone away and out of their room. They can be on their phone all they want, there just won't be anything fun to do! You can set this "digital bedtime" for your child at least 30 minutes or an hour before their actual bedtime so that they won't be distracted during their usual bedtime routine. They will be able to have their bath, brush their teeth, or read a book before bed and get to bed on time without the distraction of their phone. You may think this tool would work really well for teenagers - and it will! But, it is very important to build healthy habits at a young age. A healthy bedtime and good sleep hygiene should be part of those habits! So no matter how young or old your kids are when they get their first tablet or phone, make sure their device has a bedtime too!

(click here to access the flyer, or find it in our “resources” section… thanks to Dr. Alten for the flyer and the encouragement to get control of our digital lives!)