In the last 10 years there’s no doubt that technology has come on leaps and bounds. People are now very comfortable with electronics, so much that it has now began to trickle down into the younger generations.
Parents of young children are now opting to introduce iPads and phones into their child’s playtime routines. The diversity in a child’s play is crucial for their development, so this opportunity has been both positively and negatively received.
According to 60 minutes Austria, Mums and dads are choosing to give iPads to their children to help relieve their parenting stresses. These children are spending most of their time hooked to these screens, and as a result have developed a behavioural disorder known professionally as “Internet addition disorder.” Characteristics of the disorder in young children can include:
- Neglect for other important life areas: For a small child this could be no longer playing with their favourite toys or finding happiness in doing activities they used to enjoy. Also reacting negatively when playing around other children.
- Insomnia: Children with this disorder may experience problems with sleeping due to overstimulation and exposure to blue light. Over reactive dreams/nightmares may occur as a result too.
Made worse by the pandemic and everyone working remotely, parents were desperate for time to work quietly whist they were at home with their children. iPads were considered a saviour for lively excitable children during these times. 60 Minutes Australia also interviewed a concerned mother after she noticed a change in her 2 young sons.
“It started during lockdown when I was trying to work from home” Beyanka Paverial said, “They would be playing on their Xbox everyday they fell behind on their schoolwork, and began to have meltdowns whenever I told them to come offline” “It was meltdown city.” Luckily after seeking advice from a child phycologist, Beyanka was able to help her boys with their addiction by introducing a strict screen time and a nonjudgemental atmosphere.
Chinese scientists have discovered that the area which is affected by internet addition disorder is the same part of the brain which controls decision making, emotions, and self-control. This is the case for any kind of addicts that this area is affected. Mental health advisors are declaring a crisis as more and more young children develop this problem.
TikTok users have been having their say on the matter, some users have come up with the term “Ipad Kids” to loosely describe children who are addicted to this technology. Some users say that “iPad’s turn young children into screen zombies” and “It is wasting their childhood, staring at a screen.”
People online also describe how the generation of parents who have children at this moment grew up without this technology in their youth, so are excited to use it themselves as well as incorporate it into their child’s life. These parents are completely unaware of the side effects, due to the lack of research.
Expects are worried about the future effect of too much screentime on children, the physical and mental heath problems that can arise are endless.
Technology can benefit children’s development but can also hinder it, like anything too much can be bad for you. How we tackle the unhealthy behaviours caused by screen time is firstly educating parents on how their actions can cause problems for their child in the future and educate them on how to stick to a regular heathy screentime limit and possibly parental controls.