A few house rules can have a major impact on technology use at home.

1) Limit Tech Use. - According to a recent study, 13 to 18 year olds use an average of 9 hours of media daily, not including time spent on devices for school or homework. You can find this and other statistics from the Common Sense Media Census here.

2) Keep Devices Out of the Bedroom. - Besides the perils of being alone with technology, children need their rest. When technology is available at all hours of the night, the temptation to respond to a text, email, comment, etc. is extremely hard for many children to resist. Some parents even take the devices at night and charge them in a central location, that is off limits to children. Out of sight, out of mind.

3) Set a Daily Time Limit. - Is device time used as a reward for finishing homework or completing chores? Awesome. Does that reward time turn into playing videogames all night? Setting time limits for tech use can help resolve many of the issues parents have with devices.

4) Learn How To Use Each Device. - Does your child have an iPhone? Learn how to use it. While each child will be different, including dealing with different aged children, learning how each device functions can help you in the long run. Your children will come to you for help with the device and you will be able to set parental controls on said device, if necessary. The number one complaint we hear from adults is not knowing what the kids are doing and not understanding the technology that is being used. Change that!

5) Set-up a Device Contract. - This contract can include all of the above ideas as well as setting up norms for Digital Citizenship. Some parents feel this is necessary to show their children how important they take device responsibility. A sample can be found here.

http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents