Are you considering bringing new technology into the home? Maybe you’ve just bought your children the latest MacBook Pro 16 inch to help them with their school work. Or perhaps you’ve decided to upgrade your television so that it has smart functionality. Then you’ll need some family computer tips.
Maybe you’ve even had the whole house wired up with smart technology so that you can boil the kettle, close your curtains or run a bath just by calling on your Amazon Alexa or Apple Homepod.
Whatever new technology you have decided on here’s what you need to know in terms of family tech tips.
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Consider Parental Controls
One of the things you must consider is implementing parental controls on your computer. This means that certain content is locked by younger members. If you want to understand more about how to set up parental controls using Apple’s family sharing guide then be sure to check out this site for a helpful guide:
https://setapp.com/how-to/apple-family-sharing-guide
Parental controls are important for ensuring your children don’t look at anything inappropriate for them such as pornography or graphically violent films.
They are also important if you, as a parent, want to keep confidential information on your computer so that you don’t want them to see such as medical reports, emails from your friends and their school teachers.
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Set Up Screen Time Hours
Reducing screen time is important for your children because of the effect of spending so much time in front of the computer is going to have on their mental health. It has been proven that screen time habits begin at a young age.
It has been proved that the internet is addictive and that the people who spend a long time in front of it can be affected. We can also waste so much time in front of it rather than being productive.
It is important therefore that you put in place some restrictions on screen time hours for your children and yourself. On Apple products, you can set this automatically so the computer or device will not load up without implementing controls.
Productivity
There is also something else you can do and that is to encourage your children to use the internet productively, to teach them to use it to get the things they want.
One way you can do this by using a timer to time every task. If, for instance, you want to respond to friends’ messages then you could encourage them to allocate 1 hour to do this every day and then a further hour to do homework.
Apps that allow users to keep track of tasks that they need to complete that week are also great. Sidenotes is a good app that can sit alongside the desktop on your Apple Mac computer that your children can use.
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Consider Getting Family Members To Sign Up To A Shared Policy
Another important task you can do is get everybody in your family to sign up for a shared policy agreement about how they use the internet. This could be a paper agreement or one they sign online.
You could even consider framing it and placing it on the mantlepiece for everyone to see. That way everybody in the family knows and understands what the rules are regarding internet usage.
Some of the rules you could consider implementing include a ban on the internet after a certain time, a ban on using cell phones around the dinner table.
You could also make a rule that family members can only use the family computer for internet use and that your children cannot use their personal laptop computers in their bedrooms.
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Arrange Outdoor Activities
One of the reasons children spend so much time in front of computers is because they feel they have little else to do, particularly if they live in a small town.
As a parent, you could resolve this by arranging outdoor activities every week. This could be snowboarding or tobogganing if there is snow or a snow center nearby.
If you live in the country this could be horseriding lessons and if you are lucky enough to live by the beach this could be learning how to surf or just a lazy day at the beach with no electronic equipment.
Spending time outdoor is a way of reconnecting with nature. It’s also a way of communicating with your children away from the screen. Sometimes our lives are so stressful that we can forget that spending time outdoors is even an option and computers and smartphones don’t help with this.
Family Computer Tips: Everything In Moderation
Computers and other technology are great. They have completely transformed our lives and we can now do most tasks over the internet like shopping, talking to friends and even arranging dates with partners we’ve met online.
However, the internet also presents a lot of challenges and it is easy to become addicted and to be unproductive.
Before long you and your children can find yourself feeling depressed, isolated and lonely.
But don’t despair there are some ways around this. You can draw up a contract with your children to ensure that there are rules that everyone follows regarding internet usage.
You can also arrange outdoor activities to help you and your children reconnect with nature and spend some time away from the stress of the screen.
If you are interested in learning more about top family computer tips, be sure to check out the rest of our site!
