When it comes to kids and screens, we know that not all technology is created equal. There’s a big difference between a child plugging in and ignoring a device with no parental controls for hours on end, and 20 minutes each of interacting with curated educational content with a parent.
There are plenty of in-between options too.
Educators and experts around the world are urging parents to take action to stop their children wasting their childhoods by wasting time on YouTube and TikTok.
Kids also admit they feel better without devices and say they want adults to do more to help them learn and grow, rather than becoming obsessed with technology.
“I’m a teenager and I struggle with the amount of time I spend on my phone. I could be outside all school year, yet I find myself scrolling through social media,” wrote a reader following a previous column on the pros and cons of screens, especially in the summer.
We also heard from parents who said they “always struggle with ground rules, non-negotiables, and anything to set boundaries around technology. Ongoing, consistent, and unwavering supervision is still required.”
Still, another parent wrote, “This technology is ridiculous and needs to be curbed with regulations.”
A 17-year-old family friend, who asked not to be named, said that as a high school student, “I wish cell phones had never been introduced to my generation, given how much they affected my childhood and my mental health.”
So where does that leave us? What’s a well-meaning parent to do?
Consider “training wheels” devices
If your child wants a smartphone, you don’t have to hand them the new iPhone or the latest Samsung Galaxy and hope it works. Instead, embrace gadgets that are designed to grow with your child.
This applies to some mobile phones. bark, Gab, TrumiThis is what I am currently recommending most to my friends and family. WindmillIt offers five Android smartphone models with built-in parental controls.
There’s no web browser and no access to social media. But you can see your child’s text messages and call history. From the parent portal, you can choose which apps to allow or block from 1,200 apps. You can also easily set time limits for each app and shut everything down at bedtime.
One of the best features is that it works with your current service (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, etc.), which is great if you want to add it to an existing family plan (depending on the model you choose). Pricing for the phone is upfront and starts at $99. Recurring subscriptions are $15/month.
Another good option is to follow the example of some celebrity parents and opt for a basic flip phone. Jerry Seinfeld We talked recently about what we do.
What tablets are safe for children?
For tablets, Parental Control On an old iPad. Amazon Creating affordable, easy-to-use and safe tablets for kidsAT&T recently announced a new device for kids called amiGO Junior Tab I’ve been reviewing it since it was released earlier this year.
in Recent Opinion PollsAccording to AT&T, about 62% of parents reported feeling guilty When it comes to giving devices to their children, parents are most concerned about behavioral problems and exposure to inappropriate or unintended sites.
The AmiGo Jr. Tab should help. The product comes preloaded with apps and activities aimed at inspiring creativity and encouraging kids to explore new ideas, rather than just staring blankly. It also has strong guardrails to prevent adult or mature content. And it makes managing screen time a little easier with built-in apps that let parents limit playtime.
The amiGo Jr. Tab costs $166 up front, but can be paid in monthly installments, and can be added to an existing AT&T plan for $20 a month, or you’ll have to pay $55 a month for a new account.
Tablets made specifically for kids are great if you’ve already decided to go in that direction, but other new options for parents are steadily emerging as warnings from experts grow louder.
Leveraging technology to manage devices
I’ve just started trying Aura costs $10 per month Parental control and child safety features. Join the parental control app bark, Custodio, Net Nanny, Canopy, Family time, And much more. The goal is to create a safer space for kids online by empowering parents to monitor what their kids are doing and who they interact with.
It’s too early to say how Aura stacks up against other products, but the most important feature of parental controls is that they can be used to help kids grow and learn, rather than simply “policing” them.
A recent study published in the UK Children and Media Journal “Parental controls are not a ‘panacea’ for online safety,” they concluded. The study concludes Parents should let their children know when they are using a monitoring app and “embrace the app as part of a positive parenting strategy centered on open communication and respectful negotiation within the family,” the study said. If not configured correctly, it suggests, “this could lead to increased conflict and distrust within the family, and have a negative impact on children’s privacy and autonomy.”
Looking ahead: AI tools to improve kids’ screen time
The online world reflects humanity, from its most beautiful side to its darkest thoughts. It can be overwhelming even for adults, and there is no benefit to exposing school-age children to the darker parts of the internet.
AI also reflects society, but it’s actually a tool that can be used for good: It can identify virtually anything, including the safety of web pages and search terms, acting as a kind of protective bubble for kids as they use the internet.
“We’re not trying to take the internet away from kids. As any parent can attest, kids want what they can’t have.” Tim Estes, CEO of Angel AI“The online world can be an invaluable resource for children,” she wrote in an email. “Without access to the internet at an early age, children not only miss out on important learning opportunities, but they also risk missing out on the chance to develop healthy online habits.”
Angel AI is an app set to launch this fall that lets kids explore the internet while holding the digital hand of an AI built specifically to protect them from danger. Estes said all queries and activity on the app are protected and encrypted, and searches are not linked to any personally identifiable information.
In my initial testing of the app on my iPhone, I found usage to be simple and intuitive: Open the app, connect to your microphone, and tap “Ask.” Your little AI friend then appears and asks what you’d like to explore. “Tell me about the largest dinosaur ever discovered,” I say.
The AI ”thinks” for a second, then displays an image and text, reading it in the same voice as an adult speaking to a child: “The largest dinosaur ever discovered is Argentinosaurus,” the AI says, before automatically sliding a new image onto the screen and reading again: “Argentinosaurus was the length of four school buses. Interesting, isn’t it?”
Each search allows them to dig deeper into a topic or ask a different question. Kids who are into videos can search just for videos or just for images.
Summer and the Screen:How to get your kids to use cell phones this summer
“How can I get better at Fortnite?” I ask, not just because I’m pretending to be a kid, but because I want some tips. The AI responds, “Here are some videos I found,” and after some research, it surfaces three videos that are informative and totally kid-safe. (Whether they help my score remains to be seen, but so far the app seems to be working well.)
If you try to search for something less kid-friendly, the AI’s safeguards kick in and guide you towards a safer train of thought: the query “bundle of guns,” for example, prompts kids to ask an adult, along with safer (but still provocative) question options like “How do astronauts breathe in space” and “What planet could humans live on?”
“Angel understands age-inappropriate content and sensitive topics that are best handled by adults,” Estes explains. “Through Angel, you don’t get access to the open, unsafe internet. Any content that Angel reviews or creates goes through content and topic filtering to ensure it’s appropriate, regardless of where it originates.”
Meanwhile, I have a new alert on my parent account: Apparently, my fictional child has asked the AI to show him his gun. Again, this is a great feature as it forces my “child” and I to talk about something very important.
Jennifer Jolie Emmy Award-winning consumer technology columnist and on-air correspondent. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY. Contact[email protected].
