Teens Spend More Hours Consuming Media Than Sleeping
Watch your own screen habits. Although your teen may not seem to pay attention to anything you do or say, you are still her most important role model. So you can’t tell her to cut back on TV time if you’re watching endless hours of TV, texting while you’re driving, or eating dinner with your Blackberry on the table.
Remind teens to limit screen usage. Banning electronics completely isn’t realistic these days, but it’s important to let your teen know you’re paying attention to how much time she’s on a screen.
Encourage activities that involve socializing. Look for activities and clubs that engage your teen socially, so he will get out and be with other people.
Create screen rules together. You’ll be more likely to get your teen’s buy-in if you come up with screen-time rules as a family.
Talk about it. Simply setting limits won’t go over well with older teens, who need to have rules that make sense to them.