Science
The excessive use of mobiles , tablets or TVs has been shown to have negative consequences on children health and well-being. Excessive use of screens is related to (1) sedentary lifestyle and obesity, (2) disrupted sleep patterns, (3) attention problems, (4) anxiety and depression (Coyne et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2016; Radesky et al., 2020).
The role of family in the regulation of screens is crucial as the children exposure to technology and media is difficult to control by legislation or similar means (unlike other addictive substances/behaviors)(Livingstone & Helsper, 2008). At the same time, current evidences suggest that digital-parenting practices that parents usually adopt to address the use of screens in their children are not effective for prevention of excessive (Collier et al., 2016) or problematic (Nielsen et al., 2019) screen use. Our app is focused on enhancing media parenting skills of parents by helping parents establish productive communication about screen use with their children and empowering them to set efficient regulative rules for the screen use within family – screen time limits for children, screen-free zones and/or activities, rules for online safety etc. These rules are based on expert recommendations of medical associations (World Health Organization, WHO; American Academy of Pediatrics, AAP; Canadian Paediatric Society, CPS; Institute de France Académie des Sciences; Royal College for Pediatrics and Child Health, RCPCH; Australian Government: Department of Health).
Members of our team are academic experts in the field of addictive use of digital games (Király et al., 2019; Lukavska, 2011; Lukavská, 2018) and in the field of family-based prevention of problematic screen use (Lukavská et al., 2020; Lukavská, Vacek, et al., 2021). Recently, we also conducted the study focused on screen use related to covid-19 pandemic restrictions and shift to distant (technology-mediated) schooling (Lukavská, Burda, et al., 2021). This study emphasized limits of school to conduct the prevention of excessive/problematic use of screens and further need to empower family-based prevention.
References
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Coyne, S. M., Radesky, J., Collier, K. M., Gentile, D. A., Linder, J. R., Nathanson, A. I., Rasmussen, E. E., Reich, S. M., & Rogers, J. (2017). Parenting and Digital Media. Pediatrics, 140(Supplement 2), S112–S116. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-1758N
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Lukavská, K., Vacek, J., Hrabec, O., Božík, M., Slussareff, M., Píšová, M., Kocourek, D., Svobodová, L., & Gabrhelík, R. (2021). Measuring Parental Behavior towards Children’s Use of Media and Screen-Devices: The Development and Psychometrical Properties of a Media Parenting Scale for Parents of School-Aged Children. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(17), 9178. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179178
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