What screen/mobile restrictions do you have?

[Busyworkingbees]

on your teens mobile, iPad, etc?

do you restrict the number of hours, usage at night time?

And how old are your teens?

How do you restrict access to inappropriate websites.

I have screen time between 7am and 8:30pm for DD14 but have now limited her mobile phone usage to 2.5hours per day as she was spending too much time on it and isolating herself. It is early days but already noticed some positive changes.

She is still able to watch tv or do a game on the ipad/laptop but at least she is not glued to the constant snap chat messaging and the impact of social media.

How do you limit access to age appropriate websites?

What other controls can we implement to keep her safe online and protect her and her wellbeing?

Oldest DD is 18, will you restrict usage? I am planning to turn wifi off at 11:30pm. As I think she spends too much time on screens, however she is responsible and studied hard for her A levels. I would like her to get out of the house and do more exercise though. She is taking a gap year and will hopefully be working part time im September, and planning a couple of short trips with a friend.

DS 18 no restrictions except on a working week turn everything off by 10pm.
DS14 no restrictions as such. Just switch off by 10pm at night. Tbf he goes out with friends a lot rather than sitting on gadgets so it's been great he isn't highly addicted and he hardly uses his mobile phone.

DS 18 has been abroad recently and is independent of us on occasions like this so I can't do anything to control his phone usage. He was at a music festival and used his phone to take photos with friends he made there and to swap contact details with others. He's an adult now and there are limitations to what I can ask of him nowadays. In the family home I expect the PC turned off 10pm working weeks, 11pm weekends and holidays.

Thank you.

Do they turn everything off at 10pm by themselves? Or do you have an app to switch off the wifi.

I found it difficult to control it when she was studying for A levels.

The times they didn't respect our wishes, we had to resort to switching off the WiFi until they understood we meant business. But now they realise that it's easier to just respect the rules of the family home and whilst living under our roof they have to turn off devices and lights by the set time.

Thank you. I think this is a very good rule to turn everything off by 10pm on a working week and 11pm on weekends.

I wish I would have implemented it earlier but found it hard with DD18 as she was studying.

It is never too late so I will pair wifi to switch off at similar times at home.

I’ve got a 14 yr old DD too and we’ve done something similar. Her screen time is limited to 7am to 9pm, and I’ve capped social media to 2 hours a day using Apple’s settings. It’s definitely helped her mood and she's more engaged at home.
We’ve blocked adult sites completely through the phone settings and our WiFi. I also found this really helpful article about phones and addiction which I'd recommend reading through: https://weareluna.app/parents/guides/mental-health-and-wellbeing/teen-phone-addiction/

I’ve set content restrictions through the family section in settings for my 14yo (iPhones). He’s also not allowed his phone in his room once he’s officially gone to bed, it charges downstairs. Saves turning the Wi-Fi off as that means we can’t use our own screens!

Thank you. This is very helpful. I will read the article.

I started noticing a change in my daughters mood once I restricted it the hours on her mobiles.

I will look at blocking adult sites through wifi and the apple phone. I not great with technology

Can anyone please tell me how I restrict harmful, inappropriate adult content on her mobile, ipad, laptop ?🫣

I have found the answer in google and have restricted adult content in her mobile. Hopefully she can’t activate it again. Should I activate explicit language too?

Need to work on the wifi now

We had no phones upstairs until age 16. Dh and I do not have our phones upstairs either. From 16 we have had no restrictions, dc were working and more independent so had that freedom. They have always respected it.

I don’t have kids myself, but I do have a younger sister, and we’ve had to figure out similar boundaries. For her, limiting late-night screen time made a huge difference we try to keep phones out of bedrooms after a certain hour so she can wind down properly. Also, having honest talks about the kind of stuff she might come across online has helped more than just strict blocking. It’s definitely a tricky balance, but so worth it for their wellbeing.

Thank you all. We have always discussed online safety and never allowed phones in bedrooms until about 16 either; screen limit to around 9pm too; however I noticed DD was getting a bit down and noticed she was listening to some harmful songs like: never want to stop being sad and which on top of some issues at school was making a bit depressed.

I have now limited use to 2.5 hours and started noticing the improvement in her mood. I have just limited adult websites and only allow clean music on her phone,

Please let me know if there are other restrictions I should put on her phone, etc? Will also do the ipad, laptop.

It is extremely important to keep an eye on their behaviour, check the phones, etc. They are still so young and easily influenced. I thought she was mature enough to decide what is harmful or not; but this experience showed me is not the case.

13 year old ds..constant massive screaming rows from him over efforts to control phone use. Feel sickened by it.

Have an app that controls the phone so try to csp it at a few hours a day and blocking overnight as yes he was addicted...hiding it and refusing to hand it over st night.

He is insanely angry and says he hates us and nobody else has any rules.

I loathe the phone so much it has dominated our household for months trying to reduce his hours and hours of use. I am able to reduce it but he just rages about it constantly and is forever trying to remove controls

And he is active outdoorsy so not total bed ridden addict but he will be on it scrolling constantly in the park if given the chance ...as will his friends.

My sons teacher told me he asked his class what their phone screen time was and majority was over 6 hours a day some many more

I think phones are like smoking we will wonder in 10 years wtf we did giving them to children. They replace reading...instruments...just relaxing ...hours upon hours of rot from tik tok and yotube and snap going into kids brains

It is very sad and worrying.

We are not doing enough to protect our children; not the government and not us an adults.

They really don’t have the maturity to deal with so much information on top of growing up, puberty, academic pressure, peer pressure. Most parents are busy trying to make ends meet and don’t have the time or mental space to raise kids with all these challenges.

15 year old zero screen time during mon-fri except for homework.

Well done. It is not easy.

Oldest DD is responsible and sensible; however she does spend more time on screens that we would like to. She had some controls and monitoring when growing up but perhaps not enough. I will be programming the wifi to switch off at 11pm from now on.

Anyway. These restrictions are not perfect.

I ticked clean in the music and videos part on my mobile. And it still let me see that song in YouTube. It initially tried to restrict YouTube and mumsnet but then I am
able to acess it. 🥲