From mental to physical illnesses, giving children mobile devices at an early age can affect their school, teenage and adult life
Dr. Rocío Reyna Camarillo, Professor at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara (UAG)
Attention deficit, cognitive disorders, poor academic performance, childhood obesity, insomnia, dependency, depression, anxiety, and even death are some of the Reasons why children and adolescents should not use technology without parental supervision.
The world has changed and technology is increasingly seeking to invade people’s attention and this has repercussions on children and affects them in many ways.
1.- It affects brain development. Today, more and more children of 2 or 3 years old are already in front of a screen every day, even those of 8 years old already have their own smartphone. We can imagine the consequences that all this will bring in the short term.
The 2019 study entitled “The Online Brain: How the Internet May Be Changing Our Cognition”, published in The Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association, showed that the Internet and social media are responsible for affecting three brain functions: the ability to pay attention, memory and social cognition. All of these are diminished by excessive use of technology.
2.- It delays the child’s development. It is proven that the first years of life are essential for growth and development. During these years, each individual will update their reception, gross and fine motor skills, learn to walk and talk, and all of this through observation and interaction with others and their environment.
The “electronic nanny” has drastically reduced the development of an entire generation of children who have grown up with a mobile device; kept away from outdoor spaces, swimming and cycling, they have damaged the fine and gross motor skills of their bodies.
A study by the Canadian Pediatric Association, conducted on a sample of 900 children, showed that a child between 6 months and 2 years old who uses a cell phone for at least 30 minutes a day has a 49% higher risk of suffering from expressive language delays (Catherine Birken, 2020).
3.- It causes childhood obesity. Unhealthy eating and a sedentary lifestyle, caused by screens, are causing a major problem of childhood obesity. Not moving and eating junk food and consuming content on mobile phones has repercussions. A study by the World Health Organization indicated that childhood obesity has multiplied by ten in the last four decades.
In 2020, 158 million children and adolescents were obese worldwide, and this figure is projected to rise to 254 million by 2030, according to the World Atlas on Childhood Obesity, published by the World Obesity Federation.
4.- Causes negative changes in behavior: In 2022, news broke about a 15-year-old boy who murdered his entire family in Spain because his PlayStation had been taken away and his Wi-Fi had been cut off.
Although it may seem like an isolated case, the growth of violent and aggressive behaviour seen in children and young people associated with the use and abuse of technology is nevertheless alarming. Experts point out that video games, social networks and the indiscriminate use of mobile phones generate addictive behaviour that brings with it that element of violence when that which causes dependency is missing.
Lack of communication between parents and children is also a cause of these behaviors. Evidence points to the fact that there is not enough family contact, because, although they all live in the same house, under the same roof, they often do not know each other, which will make it much more difficult to establish and maintain limits when technology use becomes an addiction.
5.- It generates anxiety, depression and technophobia. Multiple studies, such as the one published in 2020 by the journal Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, show that people who spend more time on social media have a higher risk of suffering from social anxiety and depression.
It is normal for rates of depression and anxiety to increase or decrease over time, but what has been observed currently is an unprecedented turning point since 2010, especially in teenage girls and related to the emergence of social networks and the mass use of cell phones.
In fact, the term technophobia was coined to include these and other problems, with nomophobia or panic in the face of loss, forgetfulness, lack of signal or battery of the device coming to the fore very soon, which brings with it: stomach and head pain, tachycardia, sweating and shortness of breath.
6.- Increases overexposure and low self-esteem. Depression, low self-esteem, self-harm and eating disorders in young people are mainly related to overexposure to the digital world and social networks.
Young people’s search for personal self-validation, accompanied by a response through “likes” and comments over which they have no control, can have a potentially disastrous result.
Furthermore, overexposure to social media mainly causes girls to compare themselves to each other, to famous singers or to influencers on a daily basis. Specialists warn of the following relationship: greater use of social media leads to a greater risk of suffering from an eating disorder.
7.- It causes sleep disorders. A direct consequence of excessive and persistent use of light-emitting devices is chronic sleep deprivation.
In her book, iGen: Why Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy, and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood, Jean Twinge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University, shares the results of her research based on surveys of 11 million American youth and in-depth interviews.
According to this specialist, the “Smartphone” generation, as she calls it, is more susceptible to suffering from depression (31% more) and possibly one of the causes is the lack of sleep caused by cell phone use.
In fact, there is a debate about whether it is lack of sleep that causes depression or depression that causes a person to not sleep. He points out that in young people who sleep less than 7 hours a day, the probability of having a risk factor rises to 68%.
Lack of sleep appears to be linked to cell phone addiction, and more than we would like to accept, to poor academic performance in thousands of young people.
Let’s take action
These are just some of the Dangers to which our children are exposed when they use technology without controlWhen we give a cell phone to children, it is more than just a gift, it is actually a decision that marks the beginning of their relationship with technology and the digital world.
Protecting children means making conscious decisions about their exposure to modern technologies. By limiting the use of mobile phones and social networks At an early age, we not only preserve their mental and physical health, but we also encourage healthier social development and better quality of sleep.
I invite you to invest time in your children, to share and have experiences in outdoor activities, love, art, active listening, because this will have repercussions on the family’s health in the long term and is better than spending a lot of money on an expensive cell phone that will be thrown away in a few months or years.
Dr. Rocío Reyna Camarillo, with more than 40 years of teaching experience, is an expert in education, training and counseling for parents, children and young people. She is currently the Director of the Lomas del Valle School of the UAG Educational System.
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