Screen time, online safety, and tech rules for kids.
295 threads
Signed him up for Code.org back in September as a "why not" thing. Honestly thought he'd lose interest in 2 weeks. But he's legitimately hooked. He's been building these little gam
My wife thinks TikTok is fine if we limit it, I think it's specifically designed to be addictive and possibly bad for developing brains. Our 13yo obviously wants it. We're in an im
Got so caught up in work emails that I completely lost track. He was in his room playing on his iPad and I just... didn't check in. Found him at 6pm still on the same game. Now I'm
My 10yo just discovered Fortnite through school friends and suddenly that's ALL he wants to talk about. I let him play for maybe 45 mins a day on weekends. The thing is... it's not
UPDATE: My 12yo spent $47 on Robux without asking me. FORTY SEVEN DOLLARS. On virtual currency for a game. I had my card saved to his account for "emergencies" which apparently inc
My 11yo had his mic on in a squad match last week and I overheard a grown man drop several F-bombs and some genuinely disturbing stuff. I thought the game had built-in filters but
We had a rough winter stuck inside with screens. Started a rule: no device time until after 4pm on weekends and that changed EVERYTHING. My 8 and 10yo are actually playing outside
Genuinely curious about the range here. My 7yo is asking for Fortnite because all his friends play it. I haven't let him yet - I've read the stuff about the rating and some of the
So we caved and got Emma a basic iPhone for her birthday (she's 9, going into 4th grade). Main reason was so she could text us when she starts walking to her friend's house after s
Honestly tired of scrolling through the App Store looking for stuff that's both educational AND engaging. My 6yo has been using Duolingo (he's trying to learn Spanish to talk to my
Tried to have 'the talk' about online safety with my 10yo and it did NOT go how I planned. I was trying to explain that sometimes people online aren't who they say they are and he
My son is 11 and starting middle school in the fall. Like half his class already has phones, and his mom (we're split custody) is pushing to get him one so they can "stay in touch.
The great phone debate. My 13yo is asking for one because literally every single kid in her grade has one. We live in Boston and honestly it does seem like an outlier not to have o
Okay so this happened and I need to document it because it might never happen again lol. Signed him up for a robotics club at school and suddenly he's MORE interested in building a
He's been asking for weeks and I thought, "it's educational, it's creative, what could go wrong?" EVERYTHING, apparently. He's been playing for 3 hours straight and has that thousa
Been reading all these studies about phone addiction so we tried a "no screens Sunday" last month. First one was brutal - kids complained, I was twitchy without my phone. But we've
My 13yo got BeReal last month and it seemed harmless enough - these notifications at random times asking you to take a 2-second photo. Sounds dumb. But then I noticed she was getti
Not gonna lie, found out this week my daughter has been messaging people she doesn't know on Roblox. My stomach dropped. I had NO IDEA this was even possible since I thought Roblox
My son wants to join Discord so he can talk to his friends while playing Minecraft together. I know Discord has some safeguards but honestly it feels like he's a little young? Most
We're looking at: Apple Screen Time Google Family Link Bark Net Nanny Which one do you actually use? What works? What's the annoying part? We have a mix of iPhones and Android in