Rage against the machine

Phones, tablets, laptops, whatever the device, your children will want to get their hands on it. Katy Gosset tackles the struggle against screen time. Phones, tablets, laptops, whatever the device, your children will want to get their hands on it. In the fourth episode of Are We There Yet ? Katy Gosset talks to parents about the struggle against screen time. "Your time is up !" That's the catch cry of parenting today. Once it might have been "Dinner time", "Time to go to school", "Time to brush your teeth, go to bed ...etc, etc." Now it's all about screen time. How much are my children getting ? Are they getting too much ? And is it affecting their brains ? In the struggle against screens, some have switched off entirely. "For probably about a year we've had no television for the kids , when they go to their grandparents they binge actually on TV to make up for the TV they don't get at our place." Father of two "They can turn on the TV themselves so I actually completely unplug it.. It was very challenging probably at the start he'd be like "I want TV, I want the Ipad" but I would just sure I was there to be able to interact with him, play with him distraction techniques." Mother of two Others with older children have had to monitor online activities closely "We stop at 9.00pm. They can have it after school when they come home but no phones at the dinner table.ever." Mother of four And then there are outside influences... Listen to Are We There Yet? "My younger kid, he's probably the one that I worry about more and he's also much more influenced by other kids and what they're doing- like shown how to access a porn site. "He wasn't interested in it but other kids were showing him and he thought that was what you had to do." Mother of two. So how much is too much ? Clinical psychologist, Catherine Gallagher said, ironically, she found good information online about age appropriate screen time durations, courtesy of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "They had some findings: under 18 months: apparently none. In between two and five: one hour a day and between six and 18 up to two hours a day." Ms Gallagher said, while these were useful guidelines, they could also promote guilt. "I read that and automatically thought 'my children are going to be disadvantaged because they've certainly had more than that.'" She believed screen time was neither good or bad: it was about striking the balance… Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details