Kids and teens in America between the ages of 8 and 18 spend, on average, 7.5 hours a day looking at screens.

• Why it matters: Mounting screen time has been linked to depression and anxiety, but often parents and teachers feel like they have little control over kids' tech use.

👀 The intrigue: Kids are smart, and most teens can bypass parental controls if they want to, Axios' Ashley May reports.

• Think you've locked your kid out of their phone at night? They'll change the time zone to get around that.

There's no universal playbook for keeping kids safe online.

• So Axios asked Kristin Lewis — chief product officer of Aura, an online safety platform for families, and mom of two boys under 10 — for her professional and personal advice on managing screen time at home.

Her top tips:

⏰ Track actual screen time. Don't guess. It's incredibly easy for hours of screen time to slip past — Lewis knows from experience.

• She banned screens at her house on weekdays only to realize her boys were waking up early on Saturday to binge shows and games. Her oldest thought he was only spending an hour on screens when he was actually spending six.

💬 Talk about it. These conversations are when you lay out the basics — screen limits, expectations and the real risks kids face online.

• Explain online scams. Remind children why they should never share personal, identifiable information in chats, even with a friend online.
• Review privacy settings. Look at what's public-facing on your child's social media profile. Make sure games and social platforms aren't using the camera, the microphone or personal data they don't really need.

📝 Create a safety contract. This is an agreement between the members of your family that answers questions like:

• How much time should be spent on social media?
• Whom do we talk to online?
• What are the rules about downloading new apps?
• Rules must be clear "because if they run into rules or restrictions or limitations that you didn't consciously communicate to them, they're going to immediately try to evade those rules," Lewis notes.

The bottom line: Most children and teens want to spend less time on the internet and social media, Lewis says.

• Adults can help by outlining clear screen time rules and setting good examples by getting off their devices themselves.

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