It's official: cell phones are dangerous for children's mental health

 It's official: cell phones are dangerous for children's mental health

Smartphones, tablets and other connected objects are an important part of our daily life and we cannot live without them. Today even the youngest and the youngest have become perfect disciples. Only the exposure of the youngest, and in particular the youngest, to smartphones and tablets can have a negative impact on their health. Early childhood professionals all agree to warn parents of the psychological consequences of this practice. 

Smartphones and tablets - A public health problem?

Smartphones and other connected objects such as tablets are an integral part of our daily lives. Whether in our private, professional life or even during the holidays, no one can do without these high-tech "high-tech" objects.

Even the youngest will have tasted it, creating a certain dependence, not without consequences for health. According to Médiamétrie, among young people aged 15 to 24, each took an average of 63 minutes per day on a cell phone in October 2017. The total daily time is 73 minutes in March 2018.

What about the little ones? Especially when we know that the brain of adults is more developed and less subject to a certain sensitivity, that of children, and especially very young children, is undeniably more sensitive to the consequences that can create overexposure or even dependence on the screen.

Between concentration deficit, effects of radiation from smartphones and other mobile phones; sleep disturbance, migraines, even cancer, it would seem that the precautions to be taken are in order. Children's academic success is said to really suffer from this bad habit of staying on the screen for a long time.

In addition, the use of smartphones and tablets for personal purposes has been prohibited in French-language elementary schools and colleges since the start of the 2018 school year.

Study highlights the harms of smartphone use among young people

A study by two American universities highlights the important link between the decline in psychological well-being among American adolescents after 2012 and the time spent on electronic communications and screens, especially smartphones and other tablets.

Psychological well-being was lower in years when adolescents spent more time on screens and higher, in years when they spent more time in non-screen activities, with changes in activities generally preceding declines in well-being. to be. to be.

Study researchers Professors Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell said time spent on smartphones was a serious but preventable cause of mental health problems and there was a need to identify factors related to these risks. for health. psychological. Parents and teachers need to reduce the time kids spend online or watching TV while studying, socializing, eating, or even playing sports.

The study also found that even moderate use of smartphones and tablets for four hours was associated with psychological well-being in less than an hour per day.

Preschoolers or children under five with prolonged overexposure are twice as likely to get angry and 46% more likely to be unable to calm down when aroused.

Among 14 to 17 year olds, more than four study participants (42.2%) who spent more than seven hours a day on screens did not complete their tasks. About one in eleven (9%) of 11-13 year olds who spend an hour on screens every day were not curious or interested in learning new things.

Young children who regularly use smartphones and / or tablets are more likely to get angry quickly and lose patience, than those who have little or no access to these connected objects and, after only an hour spent at home. looking at the screen, their curiosity would also be seriously changed.

Additionally, if a screen addiction is created spending time on a smartphone or tablet would give them a euphoric, even tranquilizing, effect, and without it they would be easily irritable and angry, stating that it would lead in the short or medium term to some form of anxiety.

Hence the importance for parents, in the first place, to establish ground rules by defining the times with or without smartphones and other tablets available and this, firmly, while empowering them by drawing their attention to the reasons and the consequences that may arise from prolonged exposure, or even dependence on these connected objects, which may possibly prove harmful to their health.