Children are not immune to forces that have driven many adults toward healthy lifestyles and spa and wellness therapies. They too are living in an electronic-gadget-obsessed world, crouching over devices, as they’re fed information and images at incredible speed. Children spend more time than ever hunched over glowing screens.
- Talk with your child about his/her excessive computer usage.Find out if there are any specific reasons that he/she spends so much time on the computer – sometimes the computer functions as an escape from reality. If your child is facing problems that are causing a desire to “escape”, try to address those.
- Move the computer to an open area if it’s not already in one –it makes it easier to monitor their usage.
- Set a password for the computer so that only you can log on to it.Your child will have to ask to be logged on to the computer in order to use it. However, this is not recommended for older children in the house, who will need this for study etc.
- Set a time limit on the amount of time your child can spend on the computer each day.
- Replace the time that your child would normally spend on the computer with other activities – play board games with them, take them to the library, get them together with friends to play sports, etc.
- Be aware of what your child is doing on the computer.Check the Internet browser’s history to see what websites he/she’s visiting.