Pia Miranda and Jocelyn Brewer sit across from each other in a warmly lit studio. They have large microphones stretched out on stands in front of them.

A super appears on screen over a shot of Jocelyn that reads: Teens and screen time

Jocelyn:
My little mantra for parents is to be curious, not furious.

Pia:
Is there a perfect amount of screen time for teens?

Jocelyn:
The short answer is no. We do focus on this notion of there being a perfect amount of time. Really, it's about what they're consuming and how they're interacting.

Pia:
When should I worry about the amount of screen time that my kids are having?

Jocelyn:
When it's eating into things like sleep. When it's displacing sleep, it's displacing getting to school on time, getting enough movement, and when we're too sedentary.

Pia:
It's so easy to want to control their behaviour. But also it's really hard to look at your own behaviour. I do look at my phone before bed, even though everything says, don't look at your phone before bed. I tell my kids, don't look at your phone before bed and here's me. Like, just fall asleep!

Jocelyn:
Yeah. The big shift in my work over the last 10 years is, rather than the focus on what kids are doing, it's actually the focus on what we are doing. So by shifting some of our habits and actually going, 'Hey guys, um, I've noticed this thing is happening to me too. How can we change this together? Here's what I might commit to'.

Pia:
With my teenager, you know getting her Instagram, is there a way to have more control over her Explore page?

Jocelyn:
Yes. With Instagram Teen Accounts, you can actually sit together, set up an account. So for kids between 13 and up to 17 and curate the interests that you, she wants to follow. Make sure those interests and some of those recommendations are aligned to the things that she really loves.

Pia:
And it's hard to admit, I get a bit afraid to set down the rules because I just want them to like me. And I don't wanna have a fight about it.

Jocelyn:
I guess we have to set different expectations and have really clear boundaries around the micro habits of what we do with technology.

Pia:
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>

Jocelyn:
We really have to kind of tailor it in and have slow but steady change management conversations. So I start with talking about the benefits and the bummers. So what are the really great things that it gives us? What are the things that bum us out and really don't work for us? How do you notice when you've been online for a little bit too long and you just get the ick feeling? And there's some really interesting new research that actually shows, it's probably about 15 to 20 minutes of scrolling that can actually be helpful. But it's when we kind of aren't very mindful and some of the content maybe isn't very meaningful, that we start to move into that kind of almost over consuming space.

Pia:
Right. Yeah.

Jocelyn:
So we can use some tools like Quiet Mode within Instagram itself. Going into Quiet Mod and being able to then avoid some of the notifications. It's a really handy way that you can support yourself to unhook from the always on, always checking, needing to respond to every message.

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