Learning how to balance media consumption is a critical life skill we have to teach our kids—as important as eating right, learning to swim or driving a car.

Here's a heads-up about your kids: Average American children now spend more time with media and technology—almost eight hours a day!—than they do with their parents or in school, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. And, among other media findings, a 2011 study in the journal Pediatrics shows that excessive television exposure in the preschool years leads to diminished school performance. With television, computers, video games, smartphones, MP3 players and other devices vying for kids' attention, raising them with a balanced media diet has never been more challenging. But it's an essential part of parenting in the digital age.

A healthy media diet means balancing three things:

1. What kids do
2. How much time they spend doing it,
3. Making age-appropriate content choices

Now that kids interact with media through personal technologies that increasingly put them in charge of selecting their own entertainment, it's never been more important to maintain oversight.

Why It Matters

Media and technology run right through the center of our kids' lives. And what kids see and do profoundly impacts their emotional, physical and social development. Media acts as a super-peer for kids, giving them a sense of what's normal, desirable or cool. But the messages in media may not be what you and your family value, so if you don't get involved and help your kids learn to think critically about role models, activities and media content, they can end up absorbing things unquestionably that you might want them to question.

In addition, since media and technology have become the way that kids socialize and communicate, we have to help them learn what is and isn't responsible behavior. Kids need to be able to balance the potential in online or mobile communication with the wisdom they need to use these powerful tools in ways that don't hurt others or become addictive.

What You Can Do

With so many new programs and technology coming out all the time—many aimed at kids—it's hard to tell what's good, what's age-appropriate and what has the "nutritional value" to entertain and hopefully educate your kids. But by keeping three simple rules in mind, you can help serve your kids a healthy media diet.

Use media together. Whenever you can, watch, play and listen with your kids. Talk about the content. When you can't be there, ask them about the media they've used. Help kids question and analyze media messages. Share your own values. Let them know how you feel about solving problems with violence, stereotyping people, selling products using sex or cartoon characters, or advertising to kids in schools or movie theaters. Help kids connect what they learn in the media to events and other activities in which they're involved—like playing sports and creating art—in order to broaden their understanding of the world.

Be a role model. When kids are around, set an example by using media the way you want them to use it. Don't bring your phone to the dinner table, and turn the television off when it's not actively being watched. Record shows that may be inappropriate for your kids to watch (even the news) and watch them later, when kids aren't around.

Keep an eye on the clock. Monitor (or have your caregiver monitor) how long your kids spend online, in front of the television, watching movies, playing video games. The secret to healthy media use is to establish time limits and stick to them—before your kids turn on and tune in.