Booster #4: Screen Time: Acceptance and understanding of responsible use of screen time. 

OVERVIEW

When a young person receives a sexualized message it will almost always be on a screen, most likely a handheld device. Things have changed. Begin early in teaching appropriate use of screen time.   Ask questions about media messaging (Media literacy) including books romance novels, movies, still pictures, blogs, advertisements etc etc. Identify and teach your children a technique for dealing with pornographic-like images when they are encountered.

SCREEN TIME BOOSTERS

• Teach Media Literacy. Media literate youth are able to understand the complex messages we receive from television, radio, Internet, newspapers, magazines, books, billboards, video games, music, and all other forms of media. Media literacy skills help youth: To develop critical thinking skills; To understand how media messages shape our culture and society; To identify marketing strategies; To recognize what the media maker wants us to believe or do; To recognize bias, spin, misinformation, and lies; To discover the parts of the story that are not being told; and To evaluate media messages based on our own experiences and gospel values. (Note: In the Porn Proofing Kids program “Taking a Child’s Temp” is in part a media literacy process.)
• Teach Personal Responsibility for Screen Time. Establish “screen-free” zones at home by making sure there are no televisions, computers, cell phones or video games in children’s bedrooms, and by turning off the various screens during dinner. Help each child in deciding on how much screen time is healthy for them. Older children should set and monitor their own screen time guidelines. Educate and use established ratings systems for shows, movies and games to avoid inappropriate content, such as violence, explicit sexual content or glorified tobacco and alcohol use.
• Identify and Teach a Technique to Deal with Porn when it is Encountered.  Make sure your child has a pre-planned strategy when pornography-like images are encountered. Practice this strategy regularly. One effective technique is referred to as “THRU-IT.”
• Set-up Internet Safety Plans and Apps. Do all you can to protect your children from inappropriate messaging. As a parent explore parental control apps for the Internet, TV, and other handheld devices.
• Join “Family” Social Networking Sites. Identify social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter etc. your children are active in. Join those sites and friend your child’s profile. These are great places to find ideas to ask your child / take your child’s temperature about.

TEMP TAKING IDEAS

FOR SCREEN TIME BOOSTER NEEDS

A BOOSTER is a dose of an extra administration after an earlier dose had already been given. A booster injection or booster dose is a re-exposure to the immunizing medicine – in our case specific “skills and knowledge”.  Repeated “boosters” increase immunity to Satan’s inappropriate use of God’s sexual arousal system. For example, tetanus shot boosters are often recommended every 10 years. Porn Proofing Booster Immunizations are recommended  P.R.N. as needed. Multiple Anti-Porn Boosters are required. The single dose of a “Birds and Bees Talk” is ineffective. (Even though it may have worked for our parents with you and I.) Ideally, parents, grandparents, church leaders, school officials unite as a “village” administering appropriate and timely boosters.

Remember in Porn Proofing Kids – Directions we talked about how you take a child’s temperature.

ASK QUESTIONS! 

Directions in taking temperatures:

• First: ASK A QUESTION as you become aware of  a sexual message from TV, print, billboard, music, video game, cereal box, news, etc etc. OR create the conversation on your own.
• Second: SAY NOTHING (That’s right shut-up): LISTEN with the intent to discern which Porn Proofing Booster is required; how strong of a Booster Dose is needed; and when best to deliver the Booster.

For now, do NOT worry about the Third: TEACH step.

Just ASK, shut-up and LISTEN.

Sample Questions That Take “Screen Time” Temperatures

And other activities as the Inspired Parent will have for their specific children.

• ASK Can you have too much screen time? How much is too much?

• FIND a picture of a “beautiful” girl. What makes a girl beautiful? Find a picture of a “handsome” boy. What makes a boy handsome? Watch and ask questions about this video: With Some Images All is Not What it Seems.

• ASK Is watching TV really that bad for you?

• ASK  I heard someone was talking about “Sexting” today. What does that mean? Why would someone do that?

• FIND an activity just for your kid from Don’t Buy It – PBS Get Media Smart. Like Food Advertising Tricks.

• WATCH AND ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT Deconstruction Big Hero 6  is a website devoted to how the movie was made. “Deconstruction” is a media literacy term.

• WATCH AND ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT this video Things As They Really Are – by David Bednar

• WATCH AND ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT the 30 minute video – Science of Hollywood Stunts

M. Russell Ballard talks about handheld devices:

… handheld devices are appropriate, and they are a blessing. However, when smartphones begin to interfere with our relationships with friends and family—and even more importantly, with God—we need to make a change ... Handheld devices, such as smartphones, are a blessing, but they can also distract us from hearing the “still, small voice.” They need to be our servants, not our masters… (Be Still and Know that I Am God, CES Devotional for Young Adults on use of technology, May 4, 2014.)

®2015 dr rick