Media Use Rules for Teens

As parents, my husband and I feel we should limit the amount of time that our three teens watch television, use a computer or iPod, play video games and talk or text on their cellphones. How do we go about doing this without seeming like mean parents? -- Need to Set Limits
Answer: It is very popular for parents to express concern about all the time their children spend using media. At the same time, not many are making a very serious effort to curb all this time. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation released last year showed that 8- to 18-year-olds spent more than a quarter of each day using entertainment media. According to this study, the most time is spent on viewing television, closely followed by listening to music for older teens. Plus there is now media multitasking, such as using the computer and listening to music, which adds to the total time that children are involved with media content. It makes you wonder when children have time for other activities.
The Kaiser study also points out that media use has really increased in the past five years. This can be explained by the easy access children now have to mobile devices such as cellphones and iPods. For example, cellphone ownership in this age group has gone from 39 percent to 66 percent, and from 18 percent to 76 percent for iPods and other MP3 players.
You as parents can definitely can have an impact on how much time your children spend on media entertainment. About one in three parents have established rules. Setting rules really reduces heavy media use. Here are some popular rules:
1. No media of any type at meal times and family activities.
2. No TVs in children's bedrooms.
3. Parents keep their children's i-Pods and cell phones during homework time.
4. A limited amount of computer and video-game time.