Screentime – Beijing Kids

Advice for Parents in the Digital Age

Cindy Marie Jenkins — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 07:00:39 +0000

Our November issue covered a number of questions about parenting in the digital age, from screentime to safety to consent to why video games aren’t so bad, after all. In case you missed any of our great content, here is a quick roundup of the most popular ones and what you can expect from them.

Om Modeling Behavior

Early Education Expert Julie Wolf‘s advice is to:”Watch your own intake. If every time your child sees you, you are checking your feed or posting pictures, that sends a message. If the main form of communication between you and your friends is text or WeChat, that will be their idea of a relationship. So, if you want them to learn to have deep, meaningful, in-person conversations, model putting the phone away and laughing in person over lunch. Let them see that Instagram FOMO is not a reason to miss out on what’s happening in front of them.”

From Tech Rules: The Ins and Outs of Handing Tech to Small Children

So how can parents help?

On Teenagers Using Social Media

Dad Terry Zhang says: “I do not object to my child registering for and using social media platforms. I often discuss with him some of the latest social media apps and websites currently on the market. However, I do realize that there is content out there on the internet that is not particularly suitable for teenagers, and parents really need to guide their children with regards to safe content online and communicate with them psychologically about posting on social media.”

From #Parenting: Parents From Different Cultural Backgrounds Share Their Views of Tech at Home

On Self Confidence and Social Media

Blogger and Influencer Sally Tian says that teaching kids the lessons they need to be strong digital citizens “can only be done by creating a really healthy environment at home and instilling a sense of self-worth in kids that is separate from their looks, the number of followers they have, and where they have traveled to or what shoes and bags they have.”

From So You Want to Be a KOL: Keep Your Content Creating Kids Safe

On Putting Your Phone Down

Deputy Editor Cindy Marie Jenkins tried to ease herself into it “by not looking at my phone while we did homework. My kids are just getting used to homework so they need guidance for the hour a day we spend on it. I did have to stop myself from reaching for my phone a few times, but for that week, I was much more present and helpful to my children. Even when I had to check the homework app for help on the next assignment, I didn’t want to. And shocker! The only important message I missed was planning dinner with my husband.”

From It Can Be Done: A Phone Addict on Airplane Mode

On Screentime and Learning

“Mr. Devreaux Poole, Primary Learning and Teaching Coordinator at Yew Chung International School of Beijing (YCIS Beijing), also believes that games “offer a safe environment [for children]to explore and challenge themselves. They’re able to build self-confidence as they are able to ‘reset’ when making mistakes,” and in addition, “Delayed gratification is taught (acquired) as the ‘main reward/goal/prize,’ usually only achieved after completing several levels.”

From Screen Time Isn’t All Bad: Lessons to be Mined From Mario, Minecraft and More

On Making a Career in Video Games

Guest writer Ben “Books” Schwartz says that in the gaming business: “Everyone needs to communicate and collaborate to solve problems and put the pieces together. If part of a game is boring, the fix could be in the form of a more engaging story (writing), a more intense challenge (design), cooler special effects (art), a smoother play experience (programming), or something else entirely!

From So You Want To Be a Game Developer: What It Takes To Make Gaming a Career

KEEP READING: Weaning Kids Off Screen Time Post-COVID

Photos: Pexels, Unsplash, Public Domain Pictures

Tech Rules: The Ins and Outs of Handing Tech to Small Children

Michelle Zhang — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 07:00:44 +0000

No screen time before age two, or is it age five? Only two hours a day if you’re under age 12, right? Should they be on social media before age 16? Can I post their photos on my social media? I heard they need special blue-light-reducing glasses. I heard computers are ok but no TV between 4pm and bedtime. Give them a cell phone but have parental blocks on it. No, don’t block their access but monitor their activity with parental spyware. Wait, is that an invasion of their privacy? Is screen time making our kids fat/mean/lazy? Be an unplugged household, be a plugged-in household, live in a yurt, and run your electronics off of kinetic energy you create from the stationary bicycle in your backyard! Heeeeeeeelp! Someone stop the madness!!!

Seventy-four years ago, The RCA Corporation sold the first mass-produced television set and ignited a debate about screen time. From the very beginning, opinions about what this new device would do to our brains, bodies, and families have been intense and loudly proclaimed by parents, politicians, preachers, and everyone in-between. Since then, myriad new screens have entered our lives from home computers in the ’80s, smartphones in the ’90s, and, of course, the rise of social media to populate all those devices in the ’00s. Screens are now ubiquitous and an unavoidable part of our lives. Technology’s incredibly fast evolution has only ratcheted up the rhetoric as we try to figure out how to navigate this new world. Every parenting blog, vlog, and magazine (yes, I’m pointing the finger at myself here) claims to have the answer and it’s all completely contradictory. So, what’s a parent to do?

The truth is no one has the answers. We don’t know what the ramifications of screens will be in six months, much less in 60 years. But they are here to stay and unless you move to Antarctica, you and your child will probably need to interact with them most days. Like most parenting conundrums you will need to decide, usually through trial and error, what is best for your child and your family. Below are some of my thoughts and suggestions as an educator. They will not apply to everyone, so my hope is that you will use what you find helpful and disregard what doesn’t work for your family.

It’s Our Savior/It’s Our Doom

Throughout history, any new technology has been met with both of these bold pronouncements. The printing press was simultaneously lauded as a beacon for enlightenment and derided for discouraging memorization which (it was thought) would cause the human mind to literally shrink. The truth is most tech is a tool. And like any tool, it can be used to build something or destroy something. Teaching our kids how to use tech to build is probably a better use of our time because…

They Were Born With a Smartphone in Their Hands

Our generation thought home computers were a luxurious curiosity, dial-up was “so convenient” and Facebook was “totally game-changing.” For this generation of kids, tech is not a novelty. It just…is. There are TV screens in the subway, touch screens to check you out at the supermarket, and instant access to breaking world news… in our pocket!

Screens are just a part of a child’s world and they intuitively know how to use them. That means…

Content Matters

A Caldecott book does more for their brain than a comic strip so what they read or watch on that screen makes a difference. Encourage them to look up answers to questions like “why does the sky turn pink when the sun goes down” instead of streaming endless unboxing videos. Not that there is anything wrong with the occasional YouTube binge. But think of them like chocolate: enjoyable but not the bulk of the meal.

Limit but Don’t Deny

To continue the food analogy, if you tell your kids they can never ever have evil sugar, it’s likely that the first thing they do when out of sight is to eat a box of cookies. Teach responsible moderation. Laugh over the frolicking puppy video together but then switch over to watching a cool science experiment!

Start Virtual and Then Take It Analog

After you watch that amazing baking soda volcano erupt on screen excitedly ask, “should we try it in our kitchen?” Encourage screen time as an enhancement to an experience instead of the experience itself and children are more likely to view it as a positive tool to inspire and inform life in the real world.

Model Behavior

Watch your own intake. If every time your child sees you, you are checking your feed or posting pictures, that sends a message. If the main form of communication between you and your friends is text or WeChat, that will be their idea of a relationship. So, if you want them to learn to have deep, meaningful, in-person conversations, model putting the phone away and laughing in person over lunch. Let them see that Instagram FOMO is not a reason to miss out on what’s happening in front of them.

Consequences

You and I grew up seeing the instant results of our words. If you said something cruel on the playground, you saw the tears of your friend and immediately knew you had crossed a line. But now most of us receive a delayed reaction if we see a reaction at all. Whether it is video chats with family members across an ocean or posts read by thousands of people we have never met, there is a screen between the communicator and the recipient. That means we often do not get instant non-verbal feedback.

So how do we let children see that there are real-world responses to online events? How do we make them understand that there are real people on the other side of the screen? I suggest a 30-second rule for many parents. If your young child wants to send a text or post a message they can type/dictate it to you but they have to wait 30 seconds before hitting send. Set a timer and ask the child to think about how they would feel if they received these words or images. If they can respond positively to that question then, at the end of the waiting period, they can hit send. If they say it would make them feel bad or sad, ask them if they still think they should send it.

Even in the digital age grandma’s advice is still valid. Think before you speak!

Be Flexible

No matter what guidelines your family settles on, there will be exceptions to the rules. You will be driving cross country and need 30 minutes of relative peace. It’s ok to let them watch “Peppa Pig” even if it pushes you over the allotted screen time for the day. If Uncle Mark, seven time zones away, calls during dinner, it’s fine to make an exception and answer even though the dining table is a “no-tech zone.” As your family grows and changes the rules will need to evolve too. That’s normal and healthy.

Bottom line

Tomorrow there will be a new gadget, app, or hologram that requires us to rethink everything and it will change our schools, businesses, and relationships. But somehow, the human race will survive! Use the stuff that makes your life better and let the rest go.

About the Writer

Julie Wolf is the Director of First Five Early Education Centers in New York and Director of International Education for Newhattan Early Education Centers in China. She has been working with children and parents for over 18 years as a teacher, arts integration specialist, curriculum designer, and staff development expert.

KEEP READING: Official 2021 Chinese Public Holiday Calendar Out Now

Photos: Pexels

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 November issue

A Ticking Tech Time Bomb?: Screen Time & Your Child’s Mental Development

Michelle Zhang — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 07:00:38 +0000

For parents wishing to limit screen time for their children, it is becoming increasingly difficult with every new game or product launch. As challenging as it was before, complications and shutdowns occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic brought about an even greater reliance on smart technology, not only among adults but also for kids. While parents were telecommuting to work and attending Zoom conferences, schools around the world predominantly moved learning online. Even though kids in Beijing are back on campus, there are many more that are still caught in the distance learning loop, unable to unglue their eyes from their devices. And this techno-vortex has not only sucked kids into it, but has dragged parents in right along with them, as now parental feedback, and even parent-teacher conferences are performed online. Want to help your kid with their homework? Well, pull up a chair and turn on the computer screen!

This situation is bound to be a source of great alarm for parents who might pine nostalgically for bygone years when the worst thing that could happen to kids was watching too much TV. But the world is inextricably linked to technology and kids need to not only have a functional understanding of how these devices operate but also must become savants in their own right if they are to fit into this ever-changing, increasingly digitized world.

A survey conducted by Common Sense Media found that in the US alone 53% of children have their first smartphone by the age of 11, while tweens between eight to 12 years old were spending an average of five hours a day on their devices, with the average coming in at seven hours for teens. By the age of 17, at least 88% of teens have a smartphone. These statistics do not include desktop computers and laptops as these are considered ubiquitous in most households.

Nonetheless, these statistics could be alarming for a tech conscious parent who fears any negative effects that such early and extensive exposure to technology might have.

How Much Is Too Much?

On to the burning question. Is exposing children to technology, especially smartphones and computer screens, all that bad? We spoke to Dr. Elly Wong, a psychologist at Oasis International Hospital, to answer this and other key questions that parents might have. According to Dr. Wong, screen time might not be all that bad.

As she explains, “Recent studies indicate that learning can be more effective through games and play-based activities. If your child is watching high-quality television programming or educational apps, they’re likely experiencing interactive storytelling. This can also encourage learning processing to take place.” Furthermore, those dreaded video games most kids are obsessed with might not be the bane they initially appear to be, as they could encourage better hand-eye coordination and more, as beijingkids reported in our November issue.

Does this then mean that kids should be exposed to screens and other forms of tech as early as possible? Certainly sounds like it. But before you prop your six-month-old in front of a screen, Wong has a disclaimer for you. “According to the American Academy of Pediatrics: for zero-two years, screen time should be avoided. Try to keep your child engaged in activities that will help them reach physical and developmental markers. For two-five years, your child should limit their screen time to one hour of their day. This screen time should be used on high-quality, educational apps or children’s viewing programs. While for six-year-olds and above, limit screen time to two hours per day,” explains Dr. Wong.

Warning signs for screen addiction, according to Dr. Wong.

● If you have tried cutting back on their screen time and they were very resistant.

● If they are more interested in screen time than any other activities.

● If they only talk about things they see on their screens.

● If your child isn’t communicating and socializing because they want to bring a screen to every social gathering.

● If they get in a better mood when you allow them unlimited screen time.

● If they lie or try to deny their obsessive amount of screen time.

But My Child Is Different!

Some parents might find this conservative approach far too extreme, possibly offering personal anecdotes of their own children’s extended screen exposure and how relatively harmless it has been to the child. But therein lies the problem. Extended screen time could work insidiously to negatively affect your child’s overall psychological and even physical health, going so far as to affect their information acquisition capabilities. As Dr. Wong warns, “Too much screen time has been linked to poor social skills in children. One of the major skills children learn as they grow is how to communicate with others. The brain is wired to learn language from actively listening to adults (which doesn’t happen when the child is focused on a screen) and engaging in in-person interactions and conversations. When a child is looking at a screen, they aren’t looking at other people hence they are missing out on picking up nonverbal cues and learning how to read others’ faces.” And the negative effects don’t quite end there. “According to a recent study, increased screen time in young children is associated with negative health outcomes such as decreased cognitive ability, impaired language development, mood, and autistic-like behavior including hyperactivity, short attention span, and irritability,” explains Dr. Wong.

Children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) are particularly vulnerable. According to Dr. Wong, “Screen time — particularly the interactive kind — acts as a stimulant, and children with autism are often sensitive to stimulants of all kinds. Stimulants tend to make children with autism irritable, weepy, over-focused, more obsessive-compulsive, and unable to sleep.”

So how can parents ensure that screen time is an enriching experience?

What can parents do to help? Dr. Wong has some useful advice.

• Preview programs, games, and apps before allowing your child to view or play with them. Better yet, watch, play, or use them with your child.

• Seek out interactive options that engage your child, rather than those that just require pushing and swiping or staring at the screen.

• Use parental controls to block or filter internet content.

• Make sure your child is close by during screen time so that you can supervise his or her activities.

• Ask your child regularly what programs, games, and apps he or she has played with during the day.

• When watching programming with your child, discuss what you’re watching and educate him or her about advertising and commercials.

Photos: Unsplash, Pexels

This article appeared in the beijingkids 2020 November issue

Beijing Gets Serious About Cleaning up Inappropriate Videos Targeting Children

Kipp Whittaker — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 05:00:31 +0000

This post comes courtesy of our content partners at TechNode.

Beijing’s culture regulator issued an urgent notice on Monday that requires video streaming sites to self-censor all kid-targeted videos such as animations and cosplay dramas in a bid to wipe out inappropriate contents, Tencent Tech has reported.

In addition, the regulator also put a ban on the development and production of relevant games and derivative contents. Any game including non kid-friendly content would be suspended immediately.

Image credit: Baguafu

Children are falling easy prey to inappropriate content online. Such as when users put Frozen’s Elsa in their video to get it recognized for featuring that friendly lady, then having her become pregnant, receiving an injection, or other inappropriate behavior.

Western video platform YouTube has had its own share scandals related to its lack of policing around inappropriate content aimed at children, including references to sex, drugs, alcohol, and more. To solve the problem, YouTube has eliminated over 50 channels and 150 thousand videos from their site as of last November. Just as foreign video sites are making tighter regulations, the same kid-focused videos are proliferating on mainstream Chinese video sites like Youku, iQiyi, Tencent Video, and Sohu Video. In response to public concerns, these sites are responding quickly by deleting this content.

In an official statement made by Tencent Video, the firm says it has set up a dedicated team for the initiative. Over 121 accounts were suspended and 4,000 relevant keywords blocked.

It may be unbelievable to adults, but the influence of cartoons on children can be very significant and it may lead to tragedy if handled improperly. Pleasure Goat and Big Big Wolf (喜洋洋与灰太狼), one of China’s most popular homegrown animation titles, came under fire when two young boys were tied to a tree, placed on a bed of dried leaves and set fire to, by their peer and alleged friend, in an apparent simulation of a scene in the animation.

China has over 170 million minors and the kids in first-tier cities spend an average of 3.5 hours on the internet.

Photos: Courtesy of TechNode
This post first appeared on our sister site, the Beijinger