Understanding the Teen Brain : Why Teens Need to Be Closely Monitored
Teenage is the most crucial phase of anyone’s lives. The puberty blues, hormonal changes and the never-ending adrenaline rush all makes it super-hard for the teens to process life at full capacity.
Being a parent, I’m too used to hearing my teens saying, “You don’t understand how it feels”. And I always catch myself responding, “May be I do! I’ve been in your place, remember?” But deep down I know that the times have changed and today it’s even harder for the poor teens to cope.
The Pressure of Growing Up
It’s just not the embarrassing freckles, croaky voices or the facial hair teens have to cope up with during their teens, they also have a train load of other problems. The pressure to be cool, the pressure to fit in and be accepted, the fear of being called an outcast, the pressure to do well at school, the pressure to flaunt a thriving love and party life among friends and the list goes on. They need to have the trendiest outfits, hang out with the cool kids, maintain a super-lively presence on the social media and trust me; all this takes a lot of effort, time and energy!
The Science of the Teen Brain
Not only that; their brain is not fully developed so they are bound to make judgmental errors. Their decision-making skills have not matured yet and this leads to impulsive thinking. They’re more prone to addiction than adults and we all know that habits formed at this age are hard to go.
Here, take a look at this infographic by Learning Liftoff as they explain the science of the teen brain and the side effects:
Source: www.learningliftoff.com
Addiction and Dependencies
Since their brain hasn’t yet fully matured, they are at far higher risk of getting addicted than adults. If they hang out with bad company or start drinking before the age of 15, they are 5 times more likely to become alcoholic than the people who start drinking at 21. Not only that; teens become easily addicted to their mobile phones. They spend more than 9 hours on their mobile devices, laptops and tablets. That makes up more than 68% of the time they’re awake!
Parental control apps are the parents’ only hope. Apps like FamilyTime not only let parents to monitor their kids and their activities, they can also limit their screen time, too. With Screen Time Lock feature, parents can actually lock their mobile devices for a particular period of time.
Driving Distractions
Car crashes are 4 times more likely among teens than adults. They’re easily distracted and distractions are the leading cause behind the crashes. According to AAA, cell phone use during driving makes 12% of the teen car crashes.
Over-speeding also is the major cause. No matter how many times you make them promise to drive carefully, teens are bound to drive recklessly. But with FamilyTime Speed Limit Alerts, parents can know instantly if their teens are over-speeding. The feature is simple to use and has a great benefit.
Sexting and Pornography
Raging hormones can make teens do stupid stuff that can haunt and harm them in their adult life. With sexting and dating apps getting so much popular among teens, parents need to be more careful than ever. Thousands of teens get harassed and humiliated for their private videos and photos getting leaked and viral.
So make sure you know whom they’re seeing and what kind of apps they’re using on their mobiles. FamilyTime’s Installed Apps feature will help you keep an eye on the apps your teens have on their phones and tabs. And if you see too many sexting and dating apps, you need to talk to your teen and possibly block these apps.
App Blocker feature is a great feature that can let you block such inappropriate apps on their devices for good.
Sleep Deprivation
If your teens are addicted to their mobile devices, they are definitely not getting enough sleep. Teens should sleep for at least 8-10 hours at night but 68% of teens say that they have an electronic device on throughout the night. And this affects their performance at school, too.
Unless you can lock their devices at night, there is no way the teens would put their devices aside and sleep. And for that, FamilyTime Screen Time Lock will help you. Add a Bed Time for your kids and their mobile devices will automatically turn off during sleep hours.
All They Need is a Little Push
Teens hold great potential and all they need is a little push from us parents to be on the right track. Once they grow up, they can make their own decisions but while they are in their pre-teens and teens, parents need to monitor them closely and exercise smart parental controls even if they don’t like them much!
