plethora of holiday content<\/a> to stream on your devices. You may already be asking: how do we balance it all during the craziness of the holidays?<\/p>\nNo matter how you manage screen time in your home this year, the general consensus is that quality over quantity is the most important factor in weighing and setting screen time limits. Here are some tips to help you strike a new healthy balance of on and offline activities for your kids this holiday season:<\/p>\n
\n- Is this on the naughty or nice list?<\/strong> Although The Office and Belsnickel may ask if you\u2019ve been \u2018impish or admirable?\u2019, he should probably be asking if the games you are looking at are appropriate and educational. Ensuring content is age appropriate always involves you, as a parent, considering the following questions: \u201cwhat is the goal of this game and how do you reach it?\u201d Check out\u00a0ESRB.org<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0PEGI.info<\/a>\u00a0for game descriptions and age ratings or check out Common Sense Media\u00a0for some recommended lists<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- You don\u2019t need to be visited by three ghosts to keep your kid from becoming Scrooge. \u00a0<\/strong>Kids can get cranky when you tell them time is up with a device.\u00a0 To help you keep the holidays bright and merry, set rules and use tools to help you.\u00a0 Come up with rules with your kids, such as when and for how long they will use screens \u2013 both during the holidays and after they are over.\u00a0 And use the tools that you already have to help you.\u00a0 There are settings and services that come with your home router, security software, and even on specific devices, such as the Screentime feature on your Apple devices. They\u2019re also available in apps such as Microsoft Xbox Family Settings for the gamers and TikTok.\u00a0 However, if possible, you should forego technology in favor of helping your kids learn how to manage screen time on their own. Communicating often and setting a good example can go a long way towards this end.<\/li>\n
- A Christmas Story may get a 24-hour TV loop, but that doesn\u2019t mean you have to watch every time on TBS\/TNT. <\/strong>Acknowledge the reality and healthiness of limitations. You know your kid is excited to tear into this gift, and you worked hard to give it to them. However,\u00a0it is not healthy to be online all the time and there are alternatives for how to spend your time.\u00a0Science has proven that kids still need at least 8 hours of sleep each night and should engage in healthy physical and social activities.\u00a0 Make sure that makes up most of their 24 hours in a day.<\/li>\n
- Smiling may be your favorite, but it doesn\u2019t always have to be toward a screen. <\/strong>The hardest gift to accept is that \u2018not all screen time is equal.\u2019\u00a0There are 3 types of online time: Time that is necessary (school or work), time that connects us to others (video chats with family or texting friends), and time for relaxation and enjoyment (games, TV, movies). The first is dictated by their school, the second is something you should help with and encourage for your kids, and the third is something to create rules around together. Whenever possible, make the screen time positive \u2013 whether to access educational content or watch movies together as a family \u2013 and always remind them about good digital citizenship. Make sure online time is spent in safe, kind, and productive ways.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
It is inarguable that screens have helped us all through this difficult time, even though those very screens come with their own set of challenges.\u00a0 Remember, by keeping your children home, you are keeping them and your community safe.\u00a0 And by allowing them to use screens to learn, stay connected, and bring you together as a family, and teaching them how to keep that screen time healthy, you are teaching them valuable lessons they will use beyond this year.<\/p>\n
From all of us here at Trend Micro and the Internet Safety for Kids and Families team, we wish you and yours a happy, healthy and safe holiday season.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The end of year holiday season is once again upon us and many kids are wishing for, and parents fretting over, the gift of screens. Whether it\u2019s the need for new laptops, tablets or gaming systems the pandemic\u2019s increasing timeline continues to boost demand for items that may provide some downtime from both work-from-home and school-from-home for families. But how do we balance screen time during the craziness of the holidays? Here are some tips to help you strike a new healthy balance of on and offline activities for your kids this holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"December 22, 2020\r\n\r\nThe end of year holiday season is once again upon us and many kids are wishing for, and parents fretting over, the gift of screens. Whether it\u2019s the need for new laptops, tablets or gaming systems the pandemic\u2019s increasing timeline continues to boost demand for items that may provide some downtime from both work-from-home and school-from-home for families.\r\n\r\nAs you are probably seeing in the news, retailers are fighting to meet the demands<\/a> for PS5 and XBOX Series X systems, The TODAY Show has listed multiple Nintendo Switch products for its annual \u2018hot gift list<\/a>\u2019, and every streaming service you can imagine now offers a plethora of holiday content<\/a> to stream on your devices. You may already be asking: how do we balance it all during the craziness of the holidays?\r\n\r\nNo matter how you manage screen time in your home this year, the general consensus is that quality over quantity is the most important factor in weighing and setting screen time limits. Here are some tips to help you strike a new healthy balance of on and offline activities for your kids this holiday season:\r\n\r\n \t- Is this on the naughty or nice list?<\/strong> Although The Office and Belsnickel may ask if you\u2019ve been \u2018impish or admirable?\u2019, he should probably be asking if the games you are looking at are appropriate and educational. Ensuring content is age appropriate always involves you, as a parent, considering the following questions: \u201cwhat is the goal of this game and how do you reach it?\u201d Check out\u00a0ESRB.org<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0PEGI.info<\/a>\u00a0for game descriptions and age ratings or check out Common Sense Media\u00a0for some recommended lists<\/a>.<\/li>\r\n \t
- You don\u2019t need to be visited by three ghosts to keep your kid from becoming Scrooge. \u00a0<\/strong>Kids can get cranky when you tell them time is up with a device.\u00a0 To help you keep the holidays bright and merry, set rules and use tools to help you.\u00a0 Come up with rules with your kids, such as when and for how long they will use screens \u2013 both during the holidays and after they are over.\u00a0 And use the tools that you already have to help you.\u00a0 There are settings and services that come with your home router, security software, and even on specific devices, such as the Screentime feature on your Apple devices. They\u2019re also available in apps such as Microsoft Xbox Family Settings for the gamers and TikTok.\u00a0 However, if possible, you should forego technology in favor of helping your kids learn how to manage screen time on their own. Communicating often and setting a good example can go a long way towards this end.<\/li>\r\n \t
- A Christmas Story may get a 24-hour TV loop, but that doesn\u2019t mean you have to watch every time on TBS\/TNT. <\/strong>Acknowledge the reality and healthiness of limitations. You know your kid is excited to tear into this gift, and you worked hard to give it to them. However,\u00a0it is not healthy to be online all the time and there are alternatives for how to spend your time.\u00a0Science has proven that kids still need at least 8 hours of sleep each night and should engage in healthy physical and social activities.\u00a0 Make sure that makes up most of their 24 hours in a day.<\/li>\r\n \t
- Smiling may be your favorite, but it doesn\u2019t always have to be toward a screen. <\/strong>The hardest gift to accept is that \u2018not all screen time is equal.\u2019\u00a0There are 3 types of online time: Time that is necessary (school or work), time that connects us to others (video chats with family or texting friends), and time for relaxation and enjoyment (games, TV, movies). The first is dictated by their school, the second is something you should help with and encourage for your kids, and the third is something to create rules around together. Whenever possible, make the screen time positive \u2013 whether to access educational content or watch movies together as a family \u2013 and always remind them about good digital citizenship. Make sure online time is spent in safe, kind, and productive ways.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nIt is inarguable that screens have helped us all through this difficult time, even though those very screens come with their own set of challenges.\u00a0 Remember, by keeping your children home, you are keeping them and your community safe.\u00a0 And by allowing them to use screens to learn, stay connected, and bring you together as a family, and teaching them how to keep that screen time healthy, you are teaching them valuable lessons they will use beyond this year.\r\n\r\nFrom all of us here at Trend Micro and the Internet Safety for Kids and Families team, we wish you and yours a happy, healthy and safe holiday season.","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[8,145,5,11,10,57,206,88,229],"class_list":["post-4194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-for-parents","category-for-teachers","tag-digital-citizenship","tag-gaming","tag-internet-safety","tag-kids","tag-online-safety","tag-parents","tag-screen-time","tag-social-media","tag-video-chat","wpautop"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/internet-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}