In today’s online world, children have access to the internet wherever they go. While this can be amazing, it can also open the doors to habits like doomscrolling, which can impact developing brains and affect mental health from a young age and result in behaviours like bed rotting. Because of this, parents need to know how to break the doomscrolling habit in children, the signs to look out for, and when to seek professional help.
What Is Doomscrolling, and Why Does It Affect Kids?
Doomscrolling is when a person spends a lot of their time watching/listening/reading negative news online, particularly on social media apps. It is common for people to feel like they ‘need’ to do it to ‘just to stay informed’, but have difficulty pulling themselves away from the screen and stopping the behaviour.
This behaviour impacts children because of the negative nature of the information, which can cause worry and fear. This, in turn, can have negative consequences on mental health that can have long-term effects.
What Are the Signs That Your Child Might Be Doomscrolling?
Signs of depression, general low mood, anxiety, agitation, increased screen time, and discussing topics that are unsuitable for their age could all be signs that your child is doomscrolling and struggling with this habit.
With that being said, please remember that every child is different, and you will need to keep note of changes that you notice in your own child. Have a baseline of behaviour that you understand and know, and when changes occur, make sure to communicate with your child to determine the cause, then work to break the doomscrolling habit in children.
Some signs that your child might be doomscrolling include:
- Low mood
- Signs of depression
- Increased screen time
- More agitated or anxious when using their device
- Discussing topics that are not suitable for their age
How Does Doomscrolling Impact Mental Health and Anxiety?
Doomscrolling will negatively impact mental health and anxiety in anyone, but it can be particularly troublesome for children due to their developing brains, curious nature, and lack of experience with the internet and life as a whole. This habit can reinforce catastrophising thinking, worsen anxiety and depression, and make your mental health worse overall due to exposure to constant bad news and feelings of fear and worry.
Because of this, and how damaging it can be in young ones, knowing how to break the doomscrolling habit in children is crucial for healthy development and good mental health—and is why parents need to be vigilant and aware of what their children are consuming online.
Practical Strategies to Break the Doomscrolling Habit
In order to break the doomscrolling habit in children, several approaches should be considered and put together for the best results. This includes setting screen time boundaries, teaching media literacy, encouraging positive screen use, and encouraging off-screen activities.
Depending on the severity of the habit, you may need to be more strict with these approaches, but always remember to have a conversation with your child and communicate effectively as you try to help them.
You can help to break a doomscrolling habit by:
- Setting screen time boundaries
- Teaching media literacy
- Encouraging positive screen use
- Encouraging off-screen activities
Setting Screen Time Boundaries
It’s crucial for parents to set screen time boundaries for their children, particularly when they are young and in their exploring years. This may come in the form of localising phone-checking behaviours, where they can only scroll on TikTok or ‘doomscroll’ in general at set times on in set locations 9or both) in order to limit it, reduce passive habits, and take back control.
Teach your child to localise phone-checking behaviour by setting aside time when they can check their devices, such as after lunch or dinner. Avoid localising these behaviours to when you just wake up or when you are going to bed, as this can result in difficulty focusing, loss of sleep, and other negative issues.
You can download apps and extensions to Android, iPhones, and PCs/laptops that block access to social media and chosen websites for a set period of time as well. For example, Freedom, AppBlock, StayFocused, and more can help you and your child to limit screen time by blocking access to certain apps or even turning the internet access off for a set duration.
Teaching Media Literacy
Media literacy refers to the various competencies and skills that are needed to access, create, analyse, evaluate, communicate, and behave with information from the media, internet, and social media. These skills are crucial for staying safe online, behaving appropriately, and critically thinking about information that you come across, but are not always taught or talked about enough at school, which means that parents also need to make an effort to properly teach their children.
When teaching your children media literacy, it is crucial to make sure that you teach it at an appropriate level for their age, with information about how data is used, how to protect our privacy, different online risks, how information is generated online, information sources, artificial intelligence, consequences of online actions, and more.
By teaching your children about media literacy, it can help them analyse online content and allow them to discern what is real and what is fake, help them identify different online risks that they might come across (including information and videos that could be a risk to their mental health), understand how their data is used by companies and algorithms, and how they can alter their online behaviour and actions for a more positive experience.
Encouraging Positive Screen Use
When your children use their phones, you should try and ensure that it is for something positive. One way of doing this could be helping them to curate their feeds on social media to be more positive, or even altering settings where you filter out videos via banned words/phrases/topics to lessen the risk of doomscrolling.
Our phones are incredible, and they can be used for good, but you need to remain mindful and vigilant of how your children use their devices, how the devices impact them, and ways that you can step in and help. It is all too easy to get swept up in the negativity, and sometimes a cleanse or reset is needed to help encourage positive screen use.
Replacing Screen Time With Offline Activities
Finally, it’s important for your children to have activities that do not revolve around screen use. Not only will this naturally help to break a doomscrolling habit, but it will also allow them to experience new things, explore, have fun, and possibly even meet new people and make friends.
You can replace a lot of screen time with fun activities like sports, arts, exploring, or teaching them about skills and hobbies like gardening. Getting your children out and using their bodies is the best thing you can do for them, but always remember that everyone will have different interests! A hobby you loved as a child might not be received positively by your own children, so give them some freedom in choosing how they want to spend their time.
How to Talk to Your Child About Doomscrolling Without Blame
To break the doomscrolling habit in children, you need to be able to approach them with empathy and understanding and have a conversation about their habits. It’s so important not to get mad when approaching this issue, and remain empathetic in order to let them know that you are on their side and want to help.
Your child might be your child, but you need to be able to have a real discussion with them and help them understand the dangers of doomscrolling, ways that they can change the habit, and how you can help them. For many parents, you can probably relate to them, and have been caught in the exact same trap—and this can be a powerful opportunity to use to connect, discuss, and help.
When Should You Seek Professional Help for Doomscrolling?
When doomscrolling negatively impacts your day-to-day life, and everything you try to break the cycle doesn’t work, you may want to consider seeking professional help. You should book an appointment with a mental health professional or with a school councillor for your child, and see how they can help in setting boundaries, better understand the mental impact of the behaviour, and regulate emotions.
How The Brain Workshop Supports Digital Wellbeing for Children
Concerned about your child’s digital habits? Contact The Brain Workshop for expert support in promoting healthy screen use and mental wellbeing, and break the doomscrolling habit in children to protect them and their mental well-being.
Learn more about us at the Brain Workshop, meet our team, check out events, or even read our FAQ. Or, find out more about how doomscrolling affects a child’s developing brain, why they won’t get out of bed, the impact that Ramadan has on your brain, how to stay productive in school during the holy month, and how to manage exams during this time.
