10 Practical Ways to Help Children Use Technology Wisely

Summary for Educators

Based on Lee Neikirk
The New York Times Wirecutter
August 18, 2026

THE BIG IDEA

Children are fascinated by technology, but parents and educators are increasingly concerned about how much access is healthy and how to prevent devices from dominating children’s lives. Lee Neikirk’s 10 Tips for Managing (and Reducing) Your Kid’s Screen Time offers a practical middle ground. The article does not pretend that one rule will work for every family, and it acknowledges that parental controls and outright bans have limits. Instead, it recommends a combination of technical safeguards, time limits, restricted access, single-purpose devices, and—most importantly—ongoing adult guidance.

For schools, the larger message is clear: healthy technology use has to be taught, practiced, and reinforced.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Use parental controls deliberately. Phones, tablets, laptops, gaming systems, and smart TVs include tools that can reduce access to inappropriate content, prevent unwanted purchases, and limit the sharing of personal information. Apple’s Screen Time and Google’s Family Link are two examples.

• Manage time, not just content. Screen-management tools can create routine device-free periods, restrict high-use apps, and help adults see how much time children are actually spending on their devices.

• Restrict particularly difficult platforms when necessary. Neikirk gives detailed examples of how families can limit or eliminate YouTube access when it becomes a persistent source of conflict or excessive use.

• Control the network as well as the device. Router settings can give adults the ability to pause internet access, schedule Wi-Fi availability, create child profiles, and establish content and time restrictions.

• Remember that technical controls are temporary. Older children often learn to circumvent restrictions. Even sophisticated firewalls are ultimately only a partial solution. One expert quoted in the article argues that the most important protection is talking with children and helping them learn to navigate the internet safely on their own.

• Consider simpler technology. E-readers, STEM devices, cameras, and other single-purpose technologies can give children the benefits of exploration and creativity without the limitless access of a smartphone or tablet.

WHY IT MATTERS

Schools face essentially the same challenge as families.

During the past decade, many schools focused on providing students with access to technology. The next challenge is teaching students how to manage that access responsibly.

The Wirecutter article is aimed at parents, but its lessons translate readily to classrooms. Schools already use filters, device-management systems, restricted websites, and monitoring tools. Those protections are useful, particularly for younger students. But they cannot become substitutes for teaching students judgment.

A student who behaves responsibly only because a school filter blocks everything inappropriate has not necessarily learned responsible digital behavior.

The same is true of screen time. Schools can lock phones away, disable apps, block websites, and restrict Wi-Fi access, but eventually students will leave school and have unrestricted access to technology. The long-term objective must therefore be self-regulation, not permanent adult control.

That makes digital citizenship much larger than teaching students not to cyberbully or reminding them to protect their passwords.

Students need to learn how to recognize when technology is distracting them, when entertainment is replacing sleep, when an algorithm is keeping them engaged longer than they intended, and when a device is interfering with relationships, physical activity, reading, or learning.

Even younger children can begin developing these habits. Neikirk recommends visible timers for young children because they may not yet understand the abstract passage of time; seeing time disappear can make transitions away from screens easier.

That same principle applies in classrooms: expectations work better when they are visible, predictable, and understandable.

LEADERSHIP ACTIONS

1. Audit the student digital day.
Determine how much of a typical student’s school day is spent on a screen and ask whether every use is instructionally necessary.

2. Teach digital self-management explicitly.
Help students understand notifications, persuasive design, privacy, time management, online safety, and the importance of disengaging from technology.

3. Establish predictable device-free periods.
Independent reading, discussion, labs, advisory, lunch, assemblies, and selected lessons may be stronger when devices are intentionally absent.

4. Give families practical support.
Parent workshops could demonstrate Screen Time, Family Link, router controls, streaming restrictions, child profiles, and other tools described in the Wirecutter article.

5. Match freedom to maturity.
Younger children may require strong restrictions. Older students should gradually receive more independence as they demonstrate responsible behavior.

6. Keep conversation at the center.
Technology controls can slow children down, but they cannot replace relationships. Students ultimately need adults who explain risks, discuss choices, and help them develop good judgment.

LEADER REFLECTION

For years, schools have asked:

How can we give every student access to technology?

Perhaps the more important question now is:

How can we help every student develop the judgment to use technology well—even when no adult, filter, timer, or monitoring program is controlling the choice?

The goal should not be to produce students who are simply compliant device users.

It should be to graduate young people who can decide when technology helps them learn, create, communicate, and solve problems—and who are equally capable of recognizing when it is time to put the screen away.

Original Article

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Prepared with the assistance of AI software OpenAI. (2026). ChatGPT (5.2) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com