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In our household, we lump TV, internet, DSI, etc.. together and called electronic time. My DD8 and DD11 are allowed 1 hour of electronic time per day (during weekday) after their homework. Nowadays, they play minecraft whenever they can and rarely watch TV. If they miss homework or house chores or bad behavior, they may lose their privilege upto 2 weeks.

They took up better hobby like origami when they were not allowed to use electronics.

There are actually research finding linking screen time to disturbed sleep, for both children and adults. The link is especially strong for children who have TVs in their bedrooms. I would never have put a TV in my kid's room anyway, but the research is very convincing on that one all around.

I'm impressed that some of you have the patience to watch those kids' TV shows. Lord. Most of them make me want to gouge my eyeballs out. I feel relieved that DD's current school is not big on that kind of social currency. (Harry Potter is social currency, but that I can handle!) That IS how the experts say to do it, though--watch WITH your kid.

Speaking of electronics and lost sleep, I recently started using http://stereopsis.com/flux/ . I'm not sure whether it has made a difference, but the research seems compelling.

We do not have broadcast or cable TV. We do have one television in the house. It is in the basement hooked up to Netflix, but DD does not like going down there. She has seen a dozen or so movies, some nature and travel shows, and a few dinosaur trains and sesame streets. We make it kind of special like an every other weekend thing--mommy sleeps in, daddy and DD snuggle in the basement watching the original Star Wars.

I swear by not having a television in living areas. It is so calm. We travel a lot, and one of the things I hate about hotels are the big screen TVs in the middle of the rooms. They seriously throw us off.

Pru--wow, that's fascinating. I do think the theory is that light is part of the problem. I may try it, though I don't have any sleep problems to speak of. I'm just kind of curious. I do have a friend who has ADHD and computer addiction/sleep issues and I wonder if she could really benefit.

I just downloaded! I'm excited to try it. I've wondered for awhile why I'm ready to fall asleep when I'm out in the normal living area of the house, which has no TV or computer screen, but am then pretty awake as soon as I get on the laptop to finish relaxing.

Interesting

We have very limited screen time in our house. Unless something special is going on they usually get 10mins on the Iphone or computer program of their choice. With DS5 expanding his math, and other, interests I'm having to rethink my position on this, There are so many wonderful educational sites, programs, and games out there. However every time I give extra time it is a fight to get him off. There has to be a happy medium that I haven't found.

My DD9 gets 1 hour on a school night minecraft or a design program. We do a "pay it forward" program, she uses this time to decompress right after coming home from school, will fool around outside first if it's not too miserable. If there is any fuss or not completing the homework she loses it the next day.

This is a recent schedule to do the screen time first, and it actually works very well. No screen time a minimum of 1 hour before bed, but this takes care of that.

Homework, drawing, reading, building, bubble bath...all quiet and wind-down. This helps her get a much better night's sleep and often she wakes up with about 1 hour to spare the next morning, so she can do any little outstanding homework or studying when she's really fresh.
Broadcast cartoons or DVDs from Netflix or the library on the weekends...still count the computer time as screen time and it gets divided up over the course of the day, still has to go outside, do some chores, play, etc.

During the week though because of the homework load she only does one activity, music, no sport this winter (they are actually very active at school) when the weather gets better and days get longer again we will add a sport.

Since DS was four months old, he's had access to tv.

First, it was with a Baby Einstein DVD in his swing. The puppets and lights and music are wonderful. It helped to calm him and gave me time to take a shower.

Then as he matured, we allowed only "educational" DVD's...no public tv. That lasted about two years.

Since he was four, we let him watch some public tv, but he is still limited to shows that aren't "useless". In other words, 99% of shows he doesn't watch.

DS is six.

Oh, and I have an extensive library of vintage shows on DVD for him. He is probably the only kid in his class who knows who Howdy Doody is.

my oldest son started watching DVDs when he was 18 months old and I had morning sickness and he insisted on waking up before six. How much they watch now depends on how I feel - a sore head equals more tv. I have just banned computer games because my 3.5 year old has been getting obsessive and they have a very limited range of DVDs. It is quite convenient that ds5.5 is scared of almost everything when it comes to books and tv.