I recently had a chance to interview Dr. Ali Shehata, who provides tips on how parents can create a safe streaming experience for their kids. According to a 2024 study, children and teens spend over 100 on a mobile app or platform.
What are some healthy, age-appropriate guidelines families should keep in mind for screen time?
It’s important for parents to know that screen time limits are essential for the healthy development of their child. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics has published the following recommendations for screen time limits:
· No screen time for children under 2
· One hour per day for children 2 to 12
· Two hours per day for teens and adults
Here are 4 tips to make this process a little easier (my mnemonic is GO AZ):
a) Go Gradually – if your kids are already well over the recommended time limits, suddenly making drastic reductions can create other behavioral problems and turn into a fight. Start with smaller goals, such as reducing screen time by maybe 25% every 15-30 days until you get to the recommended limits.
b) Be Open – explain to your children why this is important and that you are making these changes for their benefit. Try to enlist them as your allies in this mission (using some game speak), rather than just commanding them.
c) Create Alternatives – it can be hard to break a habit when you don’t have an alternative, and as parents, we need to have an assortment of alternatives to tame the bored child or adolescent. These include board games, reading, playing outdoor games, art projects and learning new skills. The challenge for busy parents will be making the time to focus and engage with their children, as for many of us devices have served as a “third parent” for so long to keep our kids busy while we juggle our responsibilities.
d) Create Zones – not using their favorite devices is a lot easier when they don’t see them, and many families have found success with creating device-free zones, such as mealtimes, and putting devices away on a docking station or charging station away from their sight outside of approved screen time.
How can parents and caregivers make sure their kids are staying safe online?
If you’re like a lot of parents that rely on your kids to help you navigate technology (think: “Just fix the settings for me, please!”), it can present a challenge as ensuring your kids online safety is going to take a little bit of tech literacy. The following tips, though, can help you create a safe environment for streaming for your kids:
a) Set-up a kid’s profile or parental controls: At the very least, get familiar with parental control filters or settings. Just about every streaming platform has some form of setting designed to protect children from inappropriate content. Look into the services your children use and make sure that they are using those platforms under a children’s profile and get familiar with the settings under that profile that can limit everything from total screen time to which programs they can access.
b) Review their watch history: Setting up the above profile should also grant you access to viewing their history so you can do occasional audits to make sure they haven’t gotten into something inappropriate.
c) Engage with your children: I cannot emphasize this point enough! As parents, we must get out of the mindset that screen time is the “third parent” and make sure to spend quality time with our children. A portion of that quality time can include watching programs together. All it takes is showing genuine interest in what your child cares about, and asking, “Hey, let’s watch your favorite program together (or, “Teach me how to play this game so we can play together!”).” This gives you the all-important window to have a conversation about the content they are consuming, and also help them identify what is inappropriate and why. This is also a golden chance for getting close to the loves of your life.
d) Empower your kids: Engaging with them as mentioned above allows you to teach them what is inappropriate and to recruit them to report inappropriate content (or behavior on interactive platforms by both reporting and blocking abusive individuals). This helps them to take an active stance in their own safety and to also know that you trust them to make these decisions.
Why is it important to balance screen time and family?
Balancing screen time and family time is ever more important in today’s society as we see the continued fragmentation of the family. Everywhere you look, it seems that children and adults are all cocooned in their own world, fully into their own devices, and ignoring one another. It happens at the dinner table where the family once had many great conversations and opportunities to talk about what matters, to even vacation time, where a family can be sitting on a beautiful beach but not talking to one another or enjoying the beauty of their surroundings because they can’t turn away from their phones!
It’s important for parents to recognize the health dangers that come from too much screen time, such as obesity, poor interpersonal communication skill development, poor coping skills, and so forth. At the same time, we have to review our own practices. Are we role-modeling the behavior we want our kids to adopt? Sadly, for many of us, we use devices as a “third parent” to keep the kids distracted while we attend our own zoom meetings, chat with friends, or look for romance online. We need to show our kids how to put the device away and to go outdoors, preferably without the device to avoid any interruptions, and to allow the outside world to feed our souls. There are numerous quality studies that show the healthy impact of “green time” which refers to getting outside and exploring nature. For many parents, they can remember summers of playing outside with friends and the great value this brings in terms of exercise, developing interpersonal communication skills, being creative and just creating lifetime memories! Isn’t it time to introduce our kids to this hidden gem?
How can families find quality content when their kids are exploring and streaming online?
FamCinema was designed with this very idea in mind. Firstly, FamCinema has no inappropriate content whatsoever, which means: no nudity, no sexual themes, no glorified violence, no glamorized substance abuse (in fact, none of our programs currently have any substance use whatsoever!) and no profanity. It brings us the greatest satisfaction to hear from our viewers that they have enjoyed our content together as a family. This means no complicated profiles or settings!
Secondly, as we produce much of our own content, and very carefully curate outside content, we aim to create an “edutaining” experience; while enjoying the show, you are also learning something valuable. This helps to take some of the unhealthiness out of screen-time and hopefully turn it into family time.
Lastly, our catalog is noticeably smaller than competitors, and for good reason – we believe in only showcasing content that inspires and gives value. The streaming world has become so full of AI-generated scripts and programs that have no heart or soul, but only intent on keeping you fixed to a screen and paying. When did we forget that film and television once was an art, one of the most powerful means of expressing original ideas able to grant us the pleasure of experiencing worlds and moments that we never knew existed? This is what we are trying to recreate at FamCinema, and why we only accept content that was made to leave an impact on our viewer’s hearts and minds, and that is why our motto is “More than movies – It’s a movement”! We welcome you to join us in this movement to bring back the heart to this art.
But if you are reviewing other platforms, I can share my process for identifying healthy and safe content. Usually, your kids will tell you what they are interested in and you can then take some time to “pre-approve” certain videos or channels on platforms such as YouTube Kids by viewing those programs and getting an overall idea of their content. When it comes to movies, I always check the parent’s guide on IMDB (Internet Movie Database) to get an idea about the sex/nudity, profanity, substance abuse portrayals, and frightening/intense scenes found in any movie or TV series. This way, I can also make sure they are watching programs without inappropriate or immoral content.
But one of the greatest tips is just to engage with your kids. Sit down with them, with your phone safely in the other room, and watch with them, or play games with them. Not only will it increase the bonding between you, and show your kids how much they really do matter to you, but it also opens up golden opportunities to discuss things that could be dangerous or unhealthy, as they come up in a show or game.
Dr. Ali Shehata is a board-certified Family and Emergency physician with 25 years of clinical experience. He is also the founder of FamCinema, an inclusive family-friendly OTT streaming platform. As a father and a first-generation American, Dr. Ali was inspired to create FamCinema to promote positive portrayals of Muslims and other marginalized communities, while also providing a way for viewers to limit screen time and encouraging life experiences. He currently resides in the Las Vegas area with his family.
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