Help your kids manage social media and mental wellbeing

Smartphones have made our lives easier in so many ways, but the way we use them can also have a real impact on our mental health; I know that’s true for me.

Working in the world of online safety, I am hypersensitive to the potential toll that easy, in-your-pocket access to social media, gaming, and even chats and messages can have on boundaries and wellbeing. But even that doesn’t stop me from sometimes spending too long scrolling social media or checking work emails out of hours.

That’s why I worry about the potential impact on my kids, who haven’t had the chance to learn how to prioritise their mental health while interacting with social media.

As parents, we want to keep our kids safe and happy when using their smartphones, but we also feel the pressure of helping them become digitally literate; ultimately, we want them to use this technology in the right way.

So, here are some of the things we do, as a family, to manage the balance...

We try to have some rules that apply to everyone, like “no phones at the dinner table” and putting smartphones away when we do activities together, such as watching a movie, going for a walk, or playing a game.

Getting that digital detox time together is important for all of us, and the kids need to see we value time as a family without being attached to our smartphones.

The children also have time limits on screentime, with phones switching to downtime at 7pm and not allowed in their rooms overnight.

We discuss smartphones and the risks of oversharing on text or chat groups. We also talk about how online boundaries might vary for different people and the importance of consent.

Newsy topics like AI chatbots or misinformation are good talking points too. Crucially, we ask the kids for