Parents give children tasks. Their screens blur or social media apps stop working until they finish them.
Children spend too much time watching the screens. They develop a habit of scrolling and wasting their time, instead of finishing school-related or other tasks. Current screen time restriction apps and systems let parents passively control their child's time on their phones, without asking for their proactive involvement in their child's obligations and tasks. Children do tasks only because "they have to" in order to get their phones back running.
Phase 1. Sending task. Parents send a task to a child. It could be via a shared app, Whatsapp, or any other message.
Phase 2. Force-accepting task. The child doesn't have another option but to accept the task. The child's phone blocks or the screen blurry, making it impossible for the child to use it until the task is finished (task text stays shown all the time). The task can be a real-world action or a virtual online task. Depending on the type of task, the child's phone could just have restricted access to social media apps.
Phase 3. Marking a task as finished. When the task is done, the parent approves that the task was finished the same way as the task was sent and the child's phone unblocks/unblurry.
Real world scenarios: homework, cleaning, having lunch, school, sleep, etc.
Advantages over the conventional screen-time restriction:
parents actively involved in the task giving and task completion processes
involvement of parents in their children tasks boosts motivation to complete the task and reduces the likelihood of children finding ways to circumvent or ignore the restrictions
a more direct and immediate incentive for children to complete tasks, as they will not be able to use their phone until the task is done
more flexibility and customization in terms of the tasks assigned, enabling parents to tailor the approach to their child's specific needs and behaviors
can help children develop better time-management, productivity, and responsible behavior skills
jnikola Apr 21, 2023
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