Over recent weeks there has been a lot of news coverage on social media and its impact on teenagers’ mental health, particularly our younger teens. Just over the weekend, NewsCorp launched its national campaign, ‘Let Them Be Kids’ to raise the age of children being able to create and use social media profiles from 13 to 16.
In this age of digital communication, the use of technology has become an integral part of our children’s lives. Our children will never have known a world without the internet or being plugged in. This rise in technology saturation means we need to explicitly teach, and monitor, our children’s use of technology. We need them to understand its role in their lives, its importance, as well as the risks it can have on them.
As a parent, navigating a set of expectations of device usage at home can prove challenging.
While social media can be a lifeline and a source of connection, it can also impact a child’s mental health, self-esteem and sleep patterns.
Three psychologists, Andrew Greenfield, Lisa Damour and Pam Tudin-Buchalter, have written an article for UNICEF on ‘Teen mental health and social media’. It provides some practical advice on how to navigate your teen’s usage on social media; however, one thing the three experts have in common was creating a set of expectations that everyone in the family adhered to. These expectations could be as simple as the following:
- No technology at the dinner table.
- No phones in bedrooms, even to complete homework. Phones must always be used in the shared spaces in the house.
- All phones charge in shared spaces of the house, such as the kitchen or lounge room.
- No phones when watching TV (e.g. One device at a time).
- Limit the number of social media apps your child has access to. If they want access to another platform, they must swap it out.
- Talk about algorithms, what they are, how they work, and how they determine someone’s feed.
At IGS, we recognised several years ago the impact that mobile phone usage was having on the boys, their social skills and their ability to concentrate in class. Consequently, we established clear parameters around the expectations of phone usage while on campus.
It’s a pretty simple stance: boys are required to keep their phones in their lockers during school hours. This stance has made a profound difference in the boys’ academic results, ensuring they are fully engaged in their academic learning without the distractions of notifications and the expectation to immediately respond.
Most importantly, it’s about how we as adults model positive device usage. We need to model how to have a conversation, show our kids that reading a book is a form of entertainment. Ultimately, putting the device down and engaging in meaningful connections with those in our lives is going to have the greatest impact on our children, and their future.
Catherine Cuddihy
Dean of Academics