Resources
Here at Bye Bye Screen, we love to help families enjoy time with one another and their electronic gizmos & gadgets. While our 7 Steps to Reduce Screen Time provides an excellent method to improve communication while lowering family screen use, you may have other questions or concerns. We encourage you to do your own research, just like Aira did in creating 7 Steps! Below you will find a selection of resources we have also found helpful. Remember, every family’s situation is unique, so take time to consider your entire family’s needs and implement a plan that works for everyone!
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC)
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood was founded by Dr. Susan Linn in 2000, “to end the exploitive practice of marketing to children and promote a modern childhood shaped by what’s best for kids, not corporate profits.” Working from a “Theory of Change,” CCFC aims to change public attitudes, children’s environments, how children spend their time as well as relevant rules & legalities. “7 Parent-Tested Tips to Unplug and Play” provides examples of “real-life strategies” with relatable examples to help you encourage your family to spend more time on screen-free activities. Check out their Resources page to find useful articles like “101 Screen-Free Activities,” “Picture Books for Screen-Free Week,” and “Unplugged Play: No Batteries. No Plugs.
Healthy Kids, Healthy Future
Created by The Nemours Foundation, Healthy Kids, Healthy Future encourages 5 healthy goals: nature healthy eaters, provide healthy beverages, get kids moving, reduce screen time, and support breast feeding. Here you will find fun activities to replace screen time and ideas for digital educational games, so you can encourage learning activities for the screen time your kids do have. Considering screen use in the context of promoting healthy childhoods from a variety of perspectives can help you re-imagine how to best support your child’s development as a whole.
We Can! Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition
Created by the National Institute of Health, We Can! is short for Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition, aimed at families with children ages 8 to 13 to create healthy habits. This program features a wealth of information on healthy eating and why maintaining a healthy weight is important. From understanding nutrition labels to becoming more active to reducing screen time, We Can! makes it easy to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Healthy Kids, Healthy Future
From the American Academy of Pediatrics, this is an interactive website designed to make reducing screen time easy. Their Media Time Calculator shows how much time your child’s day is occupied by various activities including sleep, family time, meals, school/daycare, and physical activity. Using age-based recommendations, this tool calculates the amount of time available for screen use after all of your child’s needs have been met. The Family Media Plan provides practical tips to create screen-free zones, screen-free times, device curfews, choose healthier media and more.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense understands that media is an integral part of our lives in the 21st century, and that children and families benefit from learning how to engage responsibly. Built on “Ten Beliefs” about media, we agree strongly with their first belief: “We believe in media sanity, not censorship.” This website has age-appropriate recommendations and reviews of various forms of media—movies and television, books, apps, games and websites—both from experts and parent users! You can create a Common Sense plan for the entire family and read helpful parenting articles on a variety of topics.
Children and Media Tips from the American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics is the organization that has set the most frequently utilized screen time recommendations by age, based on scientific research. This page provides a number of important points to consider in your child’s media use, including communication, stricter limits for very young children, creating healthy relationships, giving teens greater independence, and handling media mistakes.
Our listing of these resources connotes neither an affiliation with nor endorsement from the organizations mentioned.
