UnPlug specialises in working with organisations; however, we also recoginise the importance of having Digital Wellbeing resources for parents.  As such we mentor a number of young adults on Digital Wellbeing and are ambassadors for Children & Screens and Screentime Action Network.  

Overall guidance; Being a parent is hard, and so much digital technology is positive.  However, research is now conclusive; poor screen management is leading to children having challenges with mental and emotional health, so it’s important that parents are aware of how best to manage this.  Parents are the best Parent control app.  As children co-regulate it is important that parents lead by example.  The below offers advice and tools to help you do this.

Note – If you have your company health insurance with Irish Life they have a specific UnPlug course on “Managing Screentime at Home” that’s available to you and summarises alot of the below.

Below are some specific resources for parents; 

General resources 

• Excellent TEDx talk on the optimal media exposure for young brains (Prof Dimitri Christakis) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoT7qH_uVNo&t
• Good media source – We recommend Julie Jargon (Family & Tech columnist at The Wall Street Journal) https://www.wsj.com/news/author/julie-jargon
• If you are looking for a course to help your children with Digital Literacy we highly recommend Diana Graber’s course here; https://www.cyberwise.org/cyberwisechats
• Children and multitasking – excerpt from the excellent movie Screenagers – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPDf0y132Iw (full movie at https://www.screenagersmovie.com/about-screenagers)
• If you have teenage children and are concerned about social media, this Jubilee debate with teenagers is an excellent resource. We mentor Emma Lembke – she’s a fantastic young adult! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRkuf3usljM.  And here she is on CBS 60 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvM8hqoHXkI
• If you are looking for a guide to screens at home written by teenagers, curated by clinicians this is an excellent free resource; https://screentimenetwork.org/resource/dear-parents-digital-well-being-resource-teens-parents 
• The best free documentary on this subject is Childhood 2.0 which focusses on leading by example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He3IJJhFy-I 
• The Netflix documentary “Social Dilemma” is an excellent, if a little dystopian opinion piece on social media. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mqR_e2seeM
• Our favourite book on this subject is Carl D Marci’s book “Rewired – Protecting Your Brain In The Digital Age” https://amzn.eu/d/2S5wBTW

Experts

• Victoria Dunckley is an Integrative Child, Adolescent & Adult Psychiatrist.  We highly recommend this podcast interview on Screen Time, Brain Health & Protecting Our Kids  – https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1196106699&i=1000585540154
• Teodora Pavkovic is a leading Psychologist, Parenting Coach & Digital Wellness Consultant https://www.teopcoaching.com/

Organisations   

• Common Sense Media is the #1 resource for families and digital tech. It reviews all influencers/apps/movies https://www.commonsensemedia.org/ 
• Children & Screens – a leading nonprofit, supporting and advancing evidence-based scientific research on technology’s impacts on child health and well-being – they have an excellent youtube channel packed with resources https://www.youtube.com/c/ChildrenandScreens
• Screentime Action Network – A coalition of practitioners, educators, advocates, and parents working to promote a healthy childhood by reducing the amount of time kids spend with digital devices.https://screentimenetwork.org/
• Lookup – An intergenerational organization for youth, we fund youth solutions through grants that further their impact as they lead the change in the digital world where mental health and safety is the focus.
  https://lookup.live/
• Logoff -A movement dedicated to rethinking social media by youth for youth
  https://www.logoffmovement.org/

If you have concerns about Online Safety we recommend the following local support

• Global – https://www.unicef.org/documents/child-safety-online
• Ireland – Barnardos (https://www.barnardos.ie/learning-development/training/online- safety-programme) and Cybersafe Ireland (https://www.cybersafekids.ie/)
• UK – NSPCC – https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/online-safety/online-wellbeing/
• Canada – Canadian Centre for Child Protection https://protectchildren.ca/en/resources-research/online-safety/
• USA – Safewise https://www.safewise.com/resources/internet-safety-kids/

Feel free to reach out if you have any further questions. 

Kind Regards,

Chris Flack

Co-founder, UnPlug

E: chris@unplughq.com

T: +353 1 485 2923

L: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-flack/