How to Stop Your Child's Computer Addiction Benicia CA

Steps

1. Talk with your child about his excessive computer usage. Find out if there are any specific reasons that he spends so much time on the computer ? sometimes the computer functions as an escape from reality. If your child is facing problems that are causing a desire to ?escape?, try and address those.
2. Move the computer to an open area if it?s not already in one ? sometimes taking it out of the child?s bedroom is sufficient to reduce their computer usage, and it makes it easier to monitor their usage.
3. Tell your child that he/she has an addiction that needs to be resolved. Be firm but kind.
4. Find out how bad your child's addiction is, and what exactly your child is addicted to ? does your child spend most of his/her computer time playing games, chatting online, or just browsing the Web?
5. Set a time limit on the amount of time your child can spend on the computer each day.
   • • First, tell your child his time limit and see if he?s able to stick to the limit himself.
     • If he can?t control his time on the computer on his own (which, if his addiction is serious, will likely be the case), start using a timer. Once the timer goes off, your child has to get off the computer.
     • Parents often find it difficult to enforce time limits because their kids will put up a fight. Parents of younger children, in particular, like getting stuff done when their kids are parked in front of the screen. If you don't have the discipline to follow through, consider buying a software-based computer timer that will consistently enforce time limits, such as www.TimesUpKidz.com or www.SoftwareTime.com With these programs, parents must take explicit action to add time rather than remove or restrict it.
6. Be aware of what your child is doing on the computer. Check the Internet browswer's history to see what websites she's visiting, or install a keylogger to monitor the programs that she uses.
7. Buy or download a program that restricts Internet access ? some programs have built-in timers that shut the Internet down after a specific amount of time.
8. Replace the time that your child would normally spend on the computer with other activities ? play board games with her, take her to the library, get her together with friends to play sports, etc. Addictions are hard to break, and it?s even harder when your child has nothing to do.
9. Assign your child extra chores or take away other privileges if she continues to overuse the computer.
10. Warn your child that if he cannot control his time on the computer, you will have to take it away completely.
11. Follow through on your warning, and take the computer away. If your child has her own computer, remove the power cord, and put it somewhere where your child will not be able to get at it without your knowing.
    • • If you have more than one computer, you may have to monitor them to make sure that your child is not secretly using them. Look at your Internet?s browsing history to see if there are any websites on there that you?ve never visited. You can also install a keylogger, which will record any activity on the computer.

Tips

• If you take away the power cord to the computer, some good places to put it are in your closet (or other part of your room), your car, or even at work. Be warned, however, that the power cord for most computers is a standard plug, and he or she could probably get one off of the TV or another monitor.
• If your child reveals that there are underlying problems that are driving him to use the computer as a reality escape, don?t dismiss it as a play for sympathy. Your child may be facing genuinely serious issues at school, work (if he is old enough to hold a job), or even at home that are causing him emotional distress.
• Take note that Internet history can be cleared. The most obvious method is completely emptying the history.
• If you have a keylogger, those can be turned off as well. If you are looking through it, see if there are any big time gaps - that's a warning sign that your child is turning the logger off. (Keep in mind that he may not have done it to be sneaky - keyloggers can sometimes cause a computer to run slowly, and he may have just wanted to keep the virtual memory free while playing a game.)
• Remember that it is very important to fill your child?s time with other activities. You can?t just forbid her to use the computer and then not give her anything else to do.
• Every child requires different methods to break computer addiction ? some may only need time limits, while others might need harsher discipline before they are able to break their bad habit.

Warnings

• Don?t let your child replace all of his computer time by watching TV or playing video games ? addictions to these types of entertainment can be formed, too.
• Your child might react with anger when you take steps to break her addiction - be prepared to deal with temper tantrums.

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