Parents should not allow their children to binge on social media in the school holidays, the Children's Commissioner for England has warned.
Anne Longfield said children should not be left to use their devices without 'agreed boundaries' as she launched a guide to promote a positive relationship with technology.
It is hoped the campaign, Digital 5 a Day, will help with what Ms Longfield describes as 'one of the modern parenting world's newest and biggest dilemmas'.
In an interview with the newspaper, she said that parents should be proactive in stopping their children from bingeing on the internet during the holidays.
'It's something that every parent will talk about especially during school holidays – that children are in danger of seeing social media like sweeties, and their online time like junk food,' she said.
In a blog post on her website, she added: 'You wouldn't let an eight-year-old eat a double cheeseburger and fries every day of the year, so it's important children aren't left to use smart phones, computers or tablets without agreed boundaries.
'It doesn't have to be about restriction and control - which is unlikely to win over any child anyway - but something children will often love: working out together a good way to be online.'
She points out the amount of time children are online is increasing, and says that very young children are routinely spending more than eight hours a week online, while 12-15-year-olds are spending more than 20 hours a week online.
The campaign suggests keeping a note of how much time is being spent online, with Ms Longfield's post saying: 'We hear that children often feel pressured by the constantly connected nature of the internet.
'While they might want to do other things, it can be difficult for them to put their phones down when apps are encouraging them to engage.
'Being mindful about the amount of time that your child is spending online - and encouraging them to be mindful about how this makes them feel - is important.
'Encourage children to come up with ways of managing this i.e. keeping a diary as way of logging the amount of time they are spending online or downloading an app that helps them manage their notifications.'
The Digital 5 a Day campaign is based on the NHS's five steps to better mental wellbeing.
“When phones, social media and games make us feel worried, stressed and out of control, it means we haven’t got the balance right. With your diet, you know that, because you don’t feel that good. It’s the same with social media.”
Her warning comes after a report said that children in all age groups are spending ever-longer periods online. The internet overtook television as the top media pastime for British children last year, according to the media regulator Ofcom. Children aged five to 15 are spending 15 hours a week online.
Last year the time three- and four-year-olds spent online increased from six hours 48 minutes to eight hours 18 minutes a week, while 12- to 15-year-olds now spend more than 20 hours online.Longfield said children should be helped to understand that sites encourage them to click on another game or video based on what they had just played. She had been pressuring Facebook to make it easier for children to report things they are worried about or switch off certain features.She also criticised a feature on Snapchat, known as the Snapstreak, that she said encouraged children to increase their internet use. A streak is created when friends share photos over three consecutive days, but it is destroyed if a day is missed. Longfield compared the feature to a chain letter.
“You find children saying to parents that they have 30 people that they have to do every day and if they don’t, they drop the streak, and everyone will see,” she said. “And then – does that mean they don’t like me any more? It’s almost like chain letters. There are children who say they can’t not be online, and I think that’s really worrying.
“I want Facebook and all the other social media companies to be as proactive as they can about creating a good place and a safe place for kids to be. At the same time I want them to stop using the algorithms and the targeting that get kids addicted – all those things that we know can be very stressful and very destructive. However, it doesn’t mean that parents themselves can step aside and wait for that to happen.”
Longfield said it was not helpful to recommend an absolute time limit on how long children should be online. Instead, she is announcing a “digital five-a-day” campaign, designed to advise parents and children on a healthy online diet. Rather than switching off the wifi, parents should help children to use their internet time to learn new skills, interact positively with friends and be creative.“We’re not saying it’s parents’ fault, or that they should tell their children what to do, because ultimately this is part of life. All of those kids will have grown up with that being the normality. But we do think there is a role here for parents to step up, to stop waiting for others to come up with the solution, be that government or [social media] companies. We want [children] to feel informed, confident and empowered, and have the confidence to say, ‘no, I’m not going to do that’. That same confidence we want for children, we want for parents, too.”
She said Facebook and other social media giants “are not coming forward at quite the speed I would like them to” on making it easier to protect children.
“There is so much more they could do,” she said. “These are clever, clever people, who know their industry well, their tech abilities well. They can do things if they want that I don’t even know exist, and there are some very good examples of them using their expertise, for example by spotting people who have suicidal tendencies. But they are not doing [enough] yet.”
