“On average, children age 8-18 in the United States spend 7 1/2 hours a day watching or using screens,” said American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in the article “Screen Time and Children.” 3rd graders all the way up to high schoolers tend to spend almost 30% of their time using phones, tablets, tv, and computers, which on top of school is a big chunk of time in their day. Starting kids young on being addicted to entertainment technology can ruin a child; it could damage their attention span, detach them from human interactions, or create bad habits that may be permanent at a young age. Parents should not allow kids to have access to screens at such an early and impactful time in children’s lives.
To start, when children get access to the internet, some kids may be unmonitored, which allows them to look up whatever they want, and can often lead them to things that can be harmful for them at such a developing age where they are easily influenced by things they see.“Early and persistent exposure to violent content raises the chance of engaging in antisocial behavior,” said the National Library of Medicine. When a kid is exposed to aggression and intense behavior it can cause developmental issues for them later in life like, being less interactive with children their age which cannot help them grow and learn properly if they separate themselves from social interactions.
Another reason is that kids’ attention can shorten from watching digital entertainment for a long period of time. “Researchers have found brain structure changes in young children exposed to more screen time at the age of 3 to 5, notes Horowitz-Kraus. These changes include decreased organization of the connections between the attention system, visual processing regions, and language processing regions that are extremely crucial for language processing and academic skills,” said Institute of digital media and Child Development in the article, Attention, Media Use, and Children. This shows that when kids are allowed to have so much screen time, it heavily affects the way their brain develops which can be very damaging from a young age.
Finally, kids can likely develop a neck or spine problem from staring a screen for too long. “Many kids and teens have study habits of sitting on the bed or floor working on tablets or laptops for hours at a time. This position results in a hunched posture with no support for the back and causes the child to hold the neck flexed while looking down at the study materials,” said Johns Hopkins Medicine. It has become a common problem of spinal injuries or neck problems that usually stem from looking down on a screen for a while, over time. This can be very hurtful for kids, and when they grow up their posture will be messed up from hunching over at such an early age.
Although some technology can be very purposeful and helpful for children, it can also be a big factor in your child’s behavior, actions, and health.
