Tips for Guiding Media-Loving Kids

Every now and then I check in on Common Sense Media, a web site that offers parents guidance on the Internet, movies, and other media. The site recently added a new guide called Keeping Kids Healthy in a 24/7 Media World that is worth checking out. It's got lots of those staggering stats about the effect of an increasingly sedentary, screen-centric life for our kids:

• Kids between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of 44.5 hours a week with media, compared with 8.75 hours exercising.

• The chance of obesity for a preschooler jumps 6 percent with every hour of TV watching, and 31 percent if a TV is in her bedroom.

• The average American child sees 40,000 TV commercials a year, and most (80 percent) are about fast food, candy, cereal, and toys.

Those are the kind of numbers that make me especially pleased that my sixth-grade son, who logs plenty of screen time, played pick-up basketball with friends every day this week despite the cold temperatures. The good news is the Common Sense Media guide doesn't just list some alarming facts. It also offers some good tips for parents to help reverse the trend:

• Set limits on media time, and make them stick. Always hard to do. We're better at it some weeks in our house, worse others. They always have to have homework done before they hit the computer for fun or watch TV. Still, I know more time is logged in front of screens than reading books.

• Get your kids moving. But don't just say it, do it. Get everyone out for a walk. Go to the gym as a family. Play basketball. Don't let TV watching, video game playing, and computer tinkering be the only things you do together as a family.

• Watch TV and other media with your kids and talk about what you see. Point out how products are placed in their favorite TV shows and the impact that can have. When advertisers are trying to sell something that isn't good for their bodies or push unrealistic images of our bodies, point it out.

• Keep TVs, computers, and video game consoles out of bedrooms. Don't eat in front of the TV; talk as a family over meals. (I have to admit we're guilty of this some nights.)

Check out the full guide because it's filled with good info and tips about the importance of a balanced life that includes media but is not consumed by it.