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Journalist Jen O'Connell shares her top tips for parents today to highlight Safer Internet Day 2017, which is taking place in 90 countries around the world.
RTÉ LifeStyle spoke to Jen in Facebook Ireland to discuss how parents can over see their children's screen time.
Jen says that she tries to adapt her rules to each of her three children differently as their ages require different restrictions.
"My kids ages are ten, almost nine and two so I'm dealing with kind of different challenges."
Controlling a child's screen time is a big challenge for parents. Between TV, laptops, phone and tablets it's hard to get kids away from electronics but Jen says it's all about negotiation and staying flexible as the kids get older.
"I had a very strict policy of no screen time Monday to Friday and then screen time on weekends, and I actually felt that wasn't going to work for us as they got older so we've recently renegotiated the rules."
As a mum, Jen feels it's important to discuss these rules with her kids to help the understand that they need to balance playing computer games with getting their homework done and playing outside.
"That's kind of my top tip, is to give them back a little bit of autonomy and talk to them about why you're enforcing these rules and why you feel it's not good for them to be on screens for hours on end."
webwise.ie have created a free Parent's Guide to A Better Internet with advice on all aspects of internet safety for children.
