Here are 10 strategies to reduce phone addiction. Scroll down for a more detailed explanation of each point and how we can apply it to our kids.
- Lead by example
- Clear expectations + consistent rules
- Set relevant limits on daily screen time
- Set a phone curfew at least 1 hour before bed time
- Engage in more real life activities
- Turn off notifications for as many apps as you can
- Establish regular times and spaces where phone use is not allowed
- Prioritise real life interactions
- Understand the dangers
- Provide alternatives
A phrase like “phone addiction” or “screen addiction” might sound alarmist to some, but when any activity starts becoming all consuming, or has a negative impact on other areas of our lives, it strays into the realm of true addiction. A potentially scary thought for anyone who’s had an argument with their child about the need to turn off the phone and eat their dinner!
Thankfully, there are a lot of tools at our disposal to help reduce this risk, and make sure that our kids enjoy the benefits offered by screens while protecting them from the dangers.
1. Lead by example
The model we provide for our children influences them powerfully. If we set strict rules around screen use for them, but they struggle to get our attention because we’re looking at phone screens ourselves, it’s likely their take-away won’t be the lesson we’re trying to teach. If this is a problem area for you, as you read through the other points in this list, think about how you could apply them to your own phone use too.
2. Clear expectations + consistent rules
Talk with your children about what you consider acceptable when it comes to screen time. Ask them what they consider acceptable. Create clear rules together around what they can and can’t do. If strict rules are too hard to apply consistently, make them less strict!
3. Set relevant limits on daily screen time
For different families, the amount of screen time given will be different. That’s ok! The guiding principle is to make sure your child has time for everything else they need to be doing (like homework, playing outdoors, getting a good night’s sleep, etc.), screen time needs to give way to those things, not the other way round!
4. Set a phone curfew at least 1 hour before bed time
This one’s pretty self explanatory. There are lots of reasons why it’s good to avoid screens before sleep, including their effect on sleep quality. Keeping phones out of your most intimate daily habits helps prevent them becoming an integral part of your lifestyle.
5. Engage in more real life activities
Encourage participation in extra-curricular activities, meet ups with friends, family time activities, outdoor play, and anything else which stimulates and engages real world interest without relying on screens.
6. Turn off notifications for as many apps as you can
While some apps (including Kidslox), require notifications to be active to provide their service, many apps, especially the games and social apps most used by our kids, use notifications as a way to draw people back into the app and build addictive behaviours of constant phone checking. For older children, talk about this together with them, open their phone settings together and have them disable the notifications themselves on apps where they’re not essential.
7. Establish regular times and spaces where phone use is not allowed
Avoiding addiction is in part about establishing healthy habits. Having clear household rules about times and places where phones are not allowed helps achieve this. As a starting point many families ban phones at meal times / the dining table. Requiring that phones be left to charge overnight somewhere away from the child’s room is another common rule.
8. Prioritise real life interactions
Addictive phone use behaviour is about giving our attention to a phone as a priority. Fight this impulse by prioritising real life interactions. This means a) not answering a call or message while talking to someone in real life, b) not using a screen while someone else is talking to you, c) allow real life to interrupt screen use quickly, not the other way round.
9. Understand the dangers
Understanding that addiction to a phone screen can have real life consequences helps self regulation. Talk about these dangers with your children, it’s natural to have these types of conversations when discussing family phone rules or when explaining why you use parental controls.
10. Provide alternatives
Nothing fights a bad habit as well as a good habit. Pay attention to the moods, physical places, or times of day when your child is most likely to sink into extended phone use. Then find something else that would break the existing routine by replacement. Some ideas might include a regular reading time, calling relatives time, even watching a movie (while it is still screen time, it’s something you can do together, bond over, and have more control over).
Screen time tools like Kidslox make it easy to turn a phone off at a moment’s notice, but ending addictive screen behaviours might require a more comprehensive plan. Try the ideas above as a starting point. We’d love to hear what strategies work best for your child, tell us by messaging support@kidslox.com.