Concerns Brew with Teens and Social Media

Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. It’s becoming more and more popular with every breath we take these days! According to a Common Sense Media poll from August 2009, 22 percent of teenagers log on to their favorite social media site (such as Facebook) more than 10 times a day, and more than half of adolescents log on to a social media site more than once a day. Now that’s a lot of time spent on social media!  So what’s the problem?

“Facebook depression”

Experts day that the over exposure of social media may be a contributing factor in teen depression. Dr. Gwenn O’Keeffe (a Boston-area pediatrician) explains that there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem. Facebook is a place where you can tally your friends, see others smiling and having fun, and get the dish on who is dating who.

How We Can Help

The new American Association of Pediatrics offers some great tips for parents on how to help teens navigate the social media landscape:

• Talk to teens about their online use and the specific issues that today’s online kids face, such as cyber bullying, sexting, and difficulty managing their time.
• Work on their own “participation gap” in their homes by becoming better educated about the many technologies their children are using.
• Use a family online-use plan, with an emphasis on healthy behavior.
• Supervise online activities via active participation and communication, not just via monitoring software.

Learn about a solution that makes it possible for parents to manage the amount of time their children spend on the Internet on our website.

 

Is watching TV bad for baby’s brains?

Did you know that babies who watch TV are more likely to have delayed cognitive development and language at 14 months, especially if they’re watching programs intended for adults and older children? And yes… 24 and Grey’s Anatomy don’t qualify as educational programs!

Babies who watched 60 minutes of TV daily had developmental scores one-third lower at 14 months than babies who weren’t watching TV. Though their developmental scores were still in the normal range, the discrepancy may be due to the fact that when kids and parents are watching TV, they’re missing out on talking, playing, and interactions that are essential to learning and development.

A new study that appeared in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine followed roughly 260 lower-income, Spanish speaking families in New York. They found that Watching TV appears to stunt development in babies. In furthering the research with higher-income families much similar results were found.

Many question this study and point to educational shows such as Sesame Street, but researchers could not find substantial  positives or negatives  when compared to non-educational programs designed for small children, like SpongeBob Square Pants. Also, studies have shown parents who allow their children to watch non-educational shows spend less time reading and teaching.

Read more from this article

Radio Sandy Springs Interview

On February 3, 2010 I was featured on Radio Sandy Springs’ afternoon talk show, Parents Rule with Pat. We discussed, at length, the problem with the amount of time that our children are watching television, playing on the internet and texting rather than having face-to-face conversations. Pat described communicating face-to-face a “lost art” for our younger generations.

The Problem

It was apparent that the explosion of media was affecting our children and there was no tool to help support parents. The recommendation by all medical communities is to limit screen time to 2 hours a day, but when we try and limit time on the internet, video games, and TV, we are viewed as “the bad guy”. This is a serious problem because in the meantime, our children struggle to construct sentences, read body language, make eye contact and more importantly, they isolate themselves from face-to-face interaction with friends and family. This drove us to develop the Mikko Que™.

The Solution

The Mikko Que is an easy-to-use system that enables parents to manage and monitor the amount of time a child spends on a particular entertainment system. The entertainment system is simply connected to a lock box that interrupts video and audio signals. Our product will help teach your children responsible media consumption habits and effective time management skills. Finally, you can put an end to the constant bickering over the time spent watching TV in your household.

Listen to my Radio Sandy Springs interview

Is electronic media hurting your child’s health?

These days, children are spending more than seven hours a day with their flat screens, laptops, and other electronic media; more time than they spend in school and more than many of them spend with their family members. As adults, we need to think about how this is affecting our youth.

Research has shown that electronic media is affecting our children’s physical and mental health. According to U.S. World News, two-thirds of children have a TV in their bedroom, which doubles their risk of smoking and increases the risk of becoming overweight by one-third. Electronic media is being substituted for normal, healthy behavior such as playing outside, building forts, and riding bikes. Many people are even talking about children being unable to read body language, carry on mature conversations, or maintain eye contact due to so much interaction with electronic media.

How do we start getting control of our children’s use of electronic media? You can start by learning about Mikko. We are dedicated to providing the latest products and services that can help parents manage the electronic media in their household. For parents who wish to control their children’s Internet, TV, and video game usage, the Mikko Que is a great way to begin encouraging time management. Take the first step in creating a healthy environment for our future generation.

Visit our website for more information on our products.

What gifts are your kids asking for?

With the holidays upon us, parents everywhere are busy buying up gifts on their children’s wish lists. If you have a child of any age, it’s likely many of the “toys” are electronic and media-driven.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as a recent article stated. Many of these technologically powered gadgets can be great learning tools, and they’re as second nature to our kids as changing the channels was for us growing up. But as technology grows so has the need to manage children’s time using it.

As the article pointed out, many video games and computer games are interactive and encourage family interaction. However, as childhood obesity continues to rise and some children become anti-social, we must be mindful of the amount of time our children spend engaged with these and other technological mediums.

Here is a representative excerpt from the article:

According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, kids ages 8 to 18 are spending 7 hours and 38 minutes on average each day using entertainment media — and much of that time is spent on more than one medium at a time. The study concluded that only one in ten of those polled have rules about how much time they are allowed to watch, listen, play, talk or text on electronic devices. In addition, the study found that most households eat dinner in front of a television and that seven in ten children have a television in their bedrooms.

As the article pointed out, many video games and computer games are interactive and encourage family interaction. However, as childhood obesity continues to rise and some children become less physically active, we must be mindful of the amount of time our children spend engaged with these and other technological mediums. All national health and parenting organizations recommend only two hours per day of media. This standard seems unachievable for most families given that parents are faced with busy schedules themselves, so they find it hard to always keep a watchful eye on the amount of time their children are consumed with media.

Every parent is facing these time issues and normally with endless resistance. But there is a solution to resolve them!

The Mikko Que is a great device to open up the dialogue between parents and children about how much time is spent using each device. It also allows them to work together to decide on time limits (for example, limiting media use two hours prior to bed time). The negative health outcomes associated with excessive screen time have equal if not more negative consequences than content. Childhood obesity, sexual behaviors, drug/alcohol/tobacco use, low academic achievement and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have all medically been proven  to have a direct association with excessive screen time.

As we’ve said time and time again, technology and media are not necessarily bad. They simply need to have content monitored and have rules in place regarding the amount of time it is accessed.

What are your kids doing after bedtime?

Depending on the age of your children, it’s likely you’ve set a bed time or at least had a discussion with them about what time they should wind down.

However, research has found that after bedtime media usage is overly common in children and teens. Texting, calls, email, social networking and video games are the main culprits.

When children aren’t well rested, they can meet a variety of problems: inability to stay awake in class, learn and retain knowledge. Your child also becomes more inclined to experience mood swings and depression.

What can we, as parents, do about this problem?

Because interactive media is so stimulating, physicians recommend “powering down” a couple of hours before bedtime to start preparing the mind for sleep.

Easier said than done, but here are a couple of tips to help out:

• Take away cell phones an hour or two before bedtime. (You also might want to turn them off and store them yourself.)
• For all other media devices, the Mikko Que is the easiest way to limit the hours during which your child can use their video games, TV or the Internet. With time constraints in place, your child will no longer be able to use these platforms once the approved time has expired — even when you’re not watching!

This way you can ensure your child isn’t sleep deprived due to various devices. As anyone with a teenager knows, it’s impossible to be 100% sure your children go to sleep at bedtime, but taking away distracting stimuli is a major step in the right direction!

Time Management vs. Parental Content Control

TV, computer, video games, mobile devices. Just how many devices does your child spend his/her time playing and working with on a daily basis? So I ask, is content the only thing we must be concerned with when it comes to media consumption?

Let’s face it: we know we can’t always control the content they are viewing or come into contact with. Sure, there are plenty of parental control filters and software available to address content. While it’s important to be mindful of the types of media your child consumes, these filters can’t catch everything. Plus, today’s children – raised on the Internet – often can find ways around them.

Teaching your child time management is another method that can work in conjunction with these filters. After all, communication is the best course of action for making sure your child is viewing age-appropriate media.

By helping your child set up his/her own media time limit schedule, you can discuss and better monitor their media consumption.

This is exactly why we developed the Mikko Que – to teach our children time management and create an open discussion about media usage. With our revolutionary new product, access to the Internet is manageable. After you and your child agree on a schedule, the device will enforce it, blocking the audio and video connections when their time limit or time range is reached. Managing media access provides the only complete security, especially at night and when you are away.

As parents, we know we can’t watch our children all the time, and we want them to learn self-discipline. In today’s ever-evolving technological society, there is finally a technology tool that helps parents, without having to always watch and supervise. It’s time to win back our children’s time!