Moderating screen time has become a big issue not only for our kids but also for me. At some points this has been an issue for my wife with TV. We don’t have the answers on this but these are some things we’ve done and are doing.

Sometimes we have declared a “no screen time.” This can be for an evening or an afternoon. That means no TV, computers, iPods, or game systems. We do at times, when the weather is reasonable, send all the kids outside to play with friends, ride bikes, etc. I have no doubt that there are addictive elements to screens which make them very challenging. Walks around our neighborhood, family bike rides, and trips or picnics to the park are also good in this regard. We need to do all those things more.

We did try, for awhile, using the time limits built into Mac OS X, giving my son two hours of computer time for example. When he got his own older laptop, however, that didn’t work because the parental control features aren’t in his older operating system. I discussed these issues a bit with my brother in law in “Podcast213: Comparing Parental Control Options in Windows Vista and Mac OS 10.5 Leopard.” You might also look at my post “Home Internet Content filtering needs: Solved with OpenDNS.”. I am really sold on OpenDNS for home content filtering, and it is free.

Basically, as I’ve discussed in other contexts, I don’t think there is a technological “solution” to the issue of limiting screen time. I think it is valuable for all of us to have times of “no screens.” Dr. Richard Swenson’s book “Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives” was one of the first books I read which suggests this for families. He talks about it in the context of “pretending it is 1870,” in terms of the technologies which are permissible for those family evenings. We don’t take it that far and stop using electricity, but it is worth considering I suppose at times. The point is to DISCONNECT and both remember and experience the value of interacting with others sans digital technologies. Thoughts along these lines are certainly one of the reasons our family loves camping. (Which for us does not involve an RV with electricity, just an old pop-up trailer.)

A search on my blog for swenson and margin will turn up some other posts from the past about these issues.

Like other parenting issues, I’m sure this is a case where “1 size does not fit all.” I do think it’s important we not only discuss these issues, but also practice discipline in not allowing our screens to rule our lives. Living with intentionality is really important, and this is a big part of “digital discipline,” which is a topic I hope to write much more on in the future.

What about others? How are you dealing with screen time limits at home?

Our home is not as wired as the Fryer home: we have wireless, but it only covers one room (the book/computer room, which is currently unheated due to a gas pipe rusting through in just a few years). We have no iPod, iPhone, cell phone, TV, …, so the desktop computer in the book room is our main electronic entertainment center. We all use it for internet access, and we occasionally watch a DVD on it together (we got a collection of Mythbuster episodes this Christmas).

Under these circumstances, controlling excessive computer usage is fairly easy.