In the modern world, screens accompany children almost from birth. Kids watch cartoons, older children play games, learn languages, and make video calls to their grandparents. Teenagers spend a lot of time on social networks, read fan fiction, and watch TV series. In addition, there are TVs, game consoles, and e-books. While adults are absorbed in their worries, children spend even more time alone with screens than before. This topic was chosen because parents should do the time that children spend in front of screens. Currently, screen time in children requires control from parents and the adoption of specific measures to limit this type of leisure. Although being in front of screens spoils children’s health and vision and leads to obesity, it still helps entertain the children and contributes to their development.
With the growth of the Internet and information technologies, the risk of developing Internet addiction increases significantly. This forces adults to find a solution to control how much time the child spends in front of the screen. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2018), children aged 8-10 spend 6 hours in front of the screen every day, 9 hours in 11-14 years, and 7.5 hours in 15-18 years. This statistic is quite frightening because the waking time is not all 24 hours, which means that most children’s time is spent on the Internet, TV, and game consoles.
A long journey does not always imply that parents have many board games or creative means. For children not to be bored, be less tired of waiting or not to come up with a prank for others, parents sometimes allow them to take a phone or laptop. Gadgets with cartoons, games, or interesting applications help to brighten up the child’s tedious minutes and hours.
Some computer games and applications contribute to developing attention, memory, logical thinking, teaching reading, counting, and drawing. Content has a great impact on the cognitive development of children (Anderson & Subrahmanyam, 2017). There are different educational cartoons that allow a child to gain new knowledge about the world around them. Unfortunately, there are not many high-quality educational games and comics; most only claim a developing effect. Kids much prefer to learn playfully, and under the supervision of parents, such classes can be very effective. With the help of gadgets, it becomes possible to instill a love of reading if parents will read colorful interactive books together with the child from time to time.
In order to set a positive example for the child, parents should also control their time spent in front of screens. Undoubtedly, some adults need to spend time in front of a computer screen or smartphone for work issues, but it is still necessary to allocate specific hours when the use of gadgets is unacceptable. Instead, it is recommended to spend time with the family, help children develop, or entertain them by going to the park or playing outside. Thus, children will see the example of their parents and strive to follow it. In addition, gadgets such as e-books are created so that they do not harm vision. Moreover, they will have the goal of instilling in the child a love of reading.
There are many disadvantages to spending time in front of screens, and it should be noted that there is a significant deterioration in children’s health. The constant concentration of attention on the screens leads to the fact that the visual acuity of children decreases over time. Continuous staring at the screen leads to myopia, and eye strain leads to their dryness. This becomes a real threat of subsequent eye inflammation and infection.
The next aspect of the negative impact on health is that children who spend a lot of time playing games and cartoons move much less, which systematically affects the entire body’s state. Children often sit slouching at a computer, tablet, laptop, and this provokes curvature of the spine and problems with posture in the future. As a result of holding the gadget in hands for a long time, monotonous movement of fingers on the screen, pathologies of the hands may occur. For example, sprains, problems with tendons, especially with the thumb, may violate coordination between brain signals and hand movements. With prolonged use of the tablet, the child reduces their motor activity, which can cause obesity. Stiglic and Viner (2019) claim that there is a direct link between the amount of time spent in front of the screen and obesity. This statement demonstrates how important parental control over children and the use of gadgets is.
In addition to physical deterioration, screens can lead to psychological disorders. Children who actively use any means with screens are more likely to lose patience, to demonstrate anger and are less likely to calm down quickly (Twenge & Campbell, 2018). Children develop attention deficit, which leads to distraction and a decrease in brain activity. Regular use of gadgets and watching TV leads to sleep disorders, which eventually leads to psychological disorders. Guerrero, Barnes, Chaput, and Tremblay (2019) state that the lack of sleep in children who spend time in front of screens provokes deviant behavior by 8.8-16.6% more often than those who are restricted. Children become irritable and get tired quickly, which negatively affects their learning and life in general. Information by ear ceases to be adequately perceived, the ability to imagine and think decreases.
The negative impact of gadgets on children is especially noticeable in the example of computer games. The lack of control on the part of parents leads to the virtual world becomes more important than the real one. Because of this, the child may have many serious issues. These problems include a blunted sense of self-preservation, lack of ability to resolve conflicts peacefully. Children begin to show excessive cruelty and become incapable of prolonged loads. Children living in the virtual world are gradually losing the ability to distinguish truth from fiction. The morality of fictional characters guides them and helps adopt the skills of computer characters and their behaviour model. Excessive use of any gadgets leads to the formation of addiction. Young children throw tantrums, and teenagers begin to behave aggressively, rebel, or become depressed. These disadvantages are significant, and therefore parents should strictly limit the time of children in front of screens.
The best way to prevent children from becoming addicted to gadgets is to control the use of devices from early childhood, be interested in their lives, and spend more time with them. In early childhood, it is important to give preference to traditional forms of education. It is not required to replace drawing with pencils or modeling with a modern application on a tablet. By spending more time with children, parents will protect them from the harmful influence of computer screens, gadgets and televisions.
It is necessary to involve the child in live communication, that is, to organize meetings with friends and relatives. Currently, there is a large amount of entertainment for children in which there will be no need to use the screen. For example, amusement parks, country recreation centers, and just spending time outside the house. The child can also be carried away by some sport, which, in addition to the lack of screens, will not allow the child to gain weight, will help develop intellectually, and will also involve them in communication with other children. Spending time together playing board games, reading books, drawing, and modeling will allow parents to entertain children and distract them from gadgets. Undoubtedly, children will still desire to spend time playing computer games, phones or watching TV, but parents should dose the time and control that it is not exceeded.
In conclusion, parents should set a clear time at which children are allowed to be in front of the screens. For young children, there are quite a lot of entertaining board games and places to visit that can replace screen time. For older children who use computers independently, it is necessary to focus on the fact that information on the Internet is not always reliable, so parents need to choose it very carefully. The use of gadgets has many advantages, but the disadvantages are very significant and prevail over all the benefits. In this regard, parents should carefully monitor the time spent by children in front of screens.
References
Anderson, D., & Subrahmanyam, K. (2017). Digital screen media and cognitive development. Pediatrics, 140(2), 57-61.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Division of nutrition, physical activity, and obesity.
Guerrero, M., Barnes, J., Chaput, J., & Tremblay, M. (2019). Screen time and problem behaviors in children: exploring the mediating role of sleep duration. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16(105), 1-10.
Stiglic, N., & Viner, R. (2019). Effects of screentime on the health and well-being of children and adolescents: A systematic review of reviews. BMJ Open, 9(1), 1-15.
Twenge, J., & Campbell, K. (2018). Associations between screen time and lower psychological well-being among children and adolescents: Evidence from a population-based study. Preventive Medicine Reports, 12(1), 271-283.