Word of the Week | Vamping

January 25th, 2019

At START, we are passionate about equipping parents with the language they need to engage with their kids’ tech lives. Read more about our word of the week, vamping, in this New York Times article…and then try using it with your kids!

#screensanity

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Mental health affects *EVERYONE* Almost two in f

Mental health affects *EVERYONE*

Almost two in five Australians aged between 16 and 24 have experienced a mental disorder within the last 12 months, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

What else do we know?

🙈 Young people experienced the highest prevalence of disorder across all age groups.
🙈 38.8% of young people 16-24 had experienced a mental disorder within the last 12 months, including almost half of females (45.5%) compared with a third of males (32.4%), with anxiety disorders the most common at 31.8%.
🙈 Women had higher rates of self-harm than men, with especially high rates among young women
🙈 More than one in four females aged 16 to 24 (27.9%) had self-harmed in their life, while 8.7% of young women in the same age group had self-harmed in the last 12 months, compared with 3.3% of men.

As parents, carers, friends, neighbours...we have to help our young people!

At Screen Sanity, we believe in the power of conversation and education to help empower parents to better empower our young people to live happy, healthy and digitally balanced lives. Want to learn more about how to start the conversation in your community? Head to our website or drop us a DM and say hi. We are always here to help.

#starttheconversation #mentalhealthweek #QMHW #screensanity #digitalhealthandwellbeing

Queensland Mental Health Week kicks off next week

Queensland Mental Health Week kicks off next week 🎉👏

We love this year's theme: ‘Awareness, Belonging, Connection’, because each element resonates so deeply with the work we do and our inclusive and supportive approach to starting conversations in different communities to improve digital and mental health.

We are so proud to be invited by Belmont Private Hospital to host a workshop for the broader community on Saturday 14th October. Tickets are nearly sold out - so if you've not yet been to one of our parent workshops, or know someone who missed out who might like to attend, make sure you send them the link in our bio to book their seat asap.

What can you expect from the workshop?

+ To walk away with deeper awareness about the impact of excessive screen time on mental health

+ Provide you with practical strategies for maintaining a healthy digital lifestyle

+ Promote overall well-being among the attendees, in a safe, inclusive and non-tech-judgemental space!

This Community Event is open to all patients and staff, including family and friends.

#screensanity #QMHW #mentalhealthweek #parenting #digitalwellbeing #digitalhealth #screensanity #screenlifebalance #digitalsafety

Finding it challenging to get the kids to put thei

Finding it challenging to get the kids to put their devices down these school holidays? We have just the tool for you!

We've designed a simple family challenge to help kick start ways the different ways you can build screen-free moments into each day.

Get the whole family to join in the planning stages, then hang it up on the fridge! And for everyone who completes the challenge (even if you start late!), you win a free pizza from Julius Pizzaria in Southbank! If you aren't local to Brisbane, we'll find a pizzaria near you. How good! 🍕

We hope that this challenge helps you proactively build out easy-to-do activities each day to achieve your screen-free target.

Head to the link in our bio, or to the 'Tools' section of our website to print it out and hang on the fridge!

#screensanity #lookup #schoolholidayactivities #familyfun

Our Director and GM, Fiona Foxon, recently had the

Our Director and GM, Fiona Foxon, recently had the pleasure of speaking with Rebecca Levingston, Host of ABC Brisbane’s radio show, “Brisbane Mornings” on all things teens, screens, and how to help parent navigate the new battleground across every Aussie home.

In the interview Fiona shares 4 great tips (including one of our favourite Screen Sanity guiding principles) aimed at helping parents build a strong foundation for better digital health:

1. There is no one size fits all approach to good digital health, so take time to understand – what matters most to your family? Ask yourself, how do your tech habits help or hinder your family’s values? Download our free ‘Values Exercise’ - designed to help start family conversations about what each member finds most important.

2. “Ride, Practice & Drive” – just like we wouldn’t hand the keys to a car over to a child without putting them though the driver’s education process, we shouldn’t just hand our kids a phone and expect them to be responsible tech users. We need to adopt a driver’s ed approach; put on the seatbelt, log time in the passenger seat, then sit beside them as they log hours practicing with a smart phone or device....it’s a long and bumpy road, but one worth investing in to ensure we help build responsible smartphone users for the long term. We have a great resource called the ‘Smartphone Toolkit’ which goes through the ‘Ride, Practice, Drive’ principles for you and your soon-to-be-smarphone user.

3. Invest time into a filter, or monitoring software:
a. Qustodio for Windows and Android families
b. Screentime for Apple families
c. Bark for social media monitoring

4. Don’t parent in this new digital age alone – LINK ARMS WITH FELLOW PARENTS! Join the movement of 20+ schools and bring the Screen Sanity Workshop to your school. Contact us for more details.

#starttheconversation #screensanity #parenting #digitalhealth #digitalwellbeing #workshops #nonprofitleadership

🏞🤸🌼 ✴ Get outside ✴ Take a nap ✴ W

🏞🤸🌼

✴ Get outside
✴ Take a nap
✴ Write in your journal
✴ Go for a walk with a friend
✴ Dust off the board games
✴ Buy a set of Talking Point cards
✴ Meditate
✴ Organise a family chores morning
✴ Take a random mode of public transportation and play tourist for the day

The list of ways to look up from our phones is endless!

*Start small, stay consistent*

This is our team's mantra to making lasting, permanent change. Just like swapping sugary snacks for that piece of fruit, all it takes is one swap a day.

Feel free to drop us a line and let us know what change you've made to improve you and your family's digital health and wellbeing!

#lookup #screensanityaustralia #familytime #digitalhealth #digitalwellbeing #stopthescroll #parenting

Two words we can never say enough. THANK YOU! ⚽

Two words we can never say enough. THANK YOU! ⚽

"You can feel the shift. You can feel that the world is actually a better place after this tournament. It’s done so much for not only women’s football, but I think women in every field, I think it’s given people a power and a belief.” Wise words spoken from the epic @stephcatley - and our team couldn’t agree more.

Power and belief are at the heart of what we strive to empower every parent with as we strive to raise balanced, happy and healthy digital natives.

One thing is for sure – after such an inspiring Women’s World Cup, it’s so much easier to tell our kids to switch off the devices and get outside to kick the footie around! ⚽🏉🏏

Thank you to the Matildas for inspiring a new generation of children and adults alike to:

- believe that change is possible,
- to reconnect with humanity, &
- demonstrate the power of working hard towards a shared goal!

#keeplookingup #matildas #lookup #screensanity #outsideisfree #screensanityaustralia

**Friction Friday** For some of us, the number on

**Friction Friday**

For some of us, the number one reason we carry our phone in our pocket is because we need to be "on call"for the people who depend on us most.

One helpful trick our team love is to use a smartwatch as a tool to filter out notifications from everyone except the few people who need to get through to you most - like spouses, caregivers, and school.

It can feel so good to get your phone off your body!

#startwithyourself
#digitalhealthtips #digitalwellbeing
#screensanity #screensanityaustralia #lookup

Hello 👋 Allow us to introduce ourselves! - We

Hello 👋

Allow us to introduce ourselves!

- We are Screen Sanity Australia. We work hand in hand with our dream team colleagues in the United States, and have globally joined forces to help families navigate this crazy new world of parenting, to raise kids who are captivated by life, not screens.

- Ironic then, you might ask, why are we talking to you through a screen!? Well because although you might think we would be anti-tech, all of our tools, tips and training programs are NOT ANTI-TECH. We LOVE technology and know that we have to work with technology, not against it, to build and normalise healthy digital behaviors and habits for ourselves and our children.

- Our team has been doing this work since 2017, and our leadership team have a combined 65 years of experience in the non-for-profit, corporate, education, and creative fields!

- And last but not least, we are all deeply passionate about finding balance in this new world of constant connectedness and believe that only when we work TOGETHER across our different communities can we collectively raise the next generation to be happy, healthy and safe digital natives.

We are obsessed with helping parents navigate the battles in their house over technology.

Whenever you’re ready to start arming yourself for battle?

Just take your time and peruse our website for endless resources and content covering today’s myriad of screen time topics. From blogposts, podcasts, to easy downloads, we got your back!

Link in bio 🎉

#screensanity #starttheconversation #raisingdigitalnatives #lookup #communitymatters #digitalhealth #digitalwellbeing #parentingtips #onlinesafety

**Friction Friday** - as we heard from Principal J

**Friction Friday** - as we heard from Principal Jayne from St Joachim’s Primary School in Holland Park earlier this week, “it’s always a good to give your feeds and apps a good spring clean.”

Just like our wardrobes and closets, our feeds and web browsing history can always do with a proper spring clean. As @mariekondo says, if something doesn’t bring you joy, feel free to unfollow or mute in your feed! You’ll be grateful for it, we promise 👍💪🏼🙌

#lookup #screensanity #stopthescroll #digitalwellbeing #startwithyourself

**Friction Friday** (the PG variety don’t worry!

**Friction Friday** (the PG variety don’t worry!)

Habits of unplugging and recharging can promote mental health throughout your children’s lives, and one of the best ways to develop these habits is to have consistent, predictable, device-free zones as a family.

We love having a device basket at family dinners, play dates and definitely at sleepovers.

Nominate a family charging station where all devices live for a good weekend reset. Our team love using our Aro boxes from the team at @goaronow or the @inchargebox as our specific tech-rest-zone.

As we roll into the weekend, set aside time and a physical for unplugging from your devices.

#screensanity #screensanityaustralia #recharge #parentingtips #digitalwellbeing #digitalhealth #digitalkids