Did you know Excessive Screen Time can adversely affect your child’s mental and physical health? Over-exposure to electronic gadgets like smartphones, Tab, computers, TV, and others elevates the chances of serious health issues like Myopia, Autism, and many more in Kids these days.
These days, it is quite common in every home that both parents are working and engaged with their tight schedules for their professions. At the same time, they allow their kids to be engaged in smart devices and this has become an effective strategy for them to tackle their children.
Many researchers, paediatricians, and neonatologist doctors reported that watching screens while eating, scrolling them mindlessly, addicted to electronic gadgets increases the cases of mental health disorders, and behavioural and physical diseases among children. Recent studies say that paediatricians are worried about the adverse impact of overexposure on Toddlers’ development as well as mental health among kids.
Autism Spectrum Disorder
Recent studies added that electronic devices and their overexposure tremendously affect the child’s neurological functioning, attention span, social communication, brain development, and eye disorders among children. Dr. Christelle Tan, a pediatric medicine consultant at KKH’s Department of Child Development, also added that excessively watching videos, television, and smartphones drastically lowers brain power, hampers memory capacity, and leads to poor sleep, delay in walking, cognitive delays, and poor performance in academics.
It is quite common in recent times, starting from toddlers to children, all are addicted to smartphones or computer screens. Either they play games for a longer time or scrolling screens mindlessly for no reason. On the other hand, parents are allowing them to be exposed to smart gadgets during eating, or playing. They feel short relaxing breaks for them.
However, many ophthalmologists reported that due to this longer time, exposure can maximize the chances of Myopia, an eye disease, in which children are not able to see distant objects clearly. Not only that, but excessive screen time also causes atypical sensory behaviours among kids like a lack of communication with neighbours, lack of social engagements, delay in walking or sensory output, and many others.
Research has explored that “Sleep issues, excessive screen time, and exposure to content that is violent and fast-paced trigger dopamine and reward pathways in the brain, all of which have been associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-related behaviour”.
How does overexposure to screens impact kids’ health?
Parents must be cautious about prolonged screen exposure as this becomes a health hazard for the babies as well as the young people.
Autism-symptoms
Prolonged exposure to mobile phones, tablets, and computers increases the chances of Autism in children. They started to avoid social interaction, not respond to human activities, and to call their names. Brains started to respond less to the surrounding activities.
Myopia
It is noted in a recent survey, that children addicted to electronic devices become short-sighted in their younger stage of life. Oftentimes, it leads to blindness or vision loss in their adulthood.
Speech development
According to many neonatologists, screen exposure for a longer time drastically delays speech development in kids. When parents allow their infants to be exposed to electronic devices for a longer time, they start to lose interest in human interaction, people engagement, face-to-face communication, and play with them. Many doctors reported that this is one of the reasons for the delays in speech development in babies.
Dry and tired eyes
Oftentimes, prolonged exposure to the screen can cause dry and tired eyes along with blurry and hazy vision, headaches, and so on. Recent studies added that most young people or children are suffering from vision issues for that reason.
Poor Sleep
As per the research studies, blue light reflected from screens tremendously affects people’s eye and their vision ability. Scientists and medical experts recommended that over-exposure to screen should be stopped at least one hour before bedtime to avoid such sleep disturbances.
Violent behaviour
Medical science discovered that prolonged usage of electronic devices affected the emotional attachment of children and significantly impacted their behaviours. Sometimes, they may exhibit aggressive behaviours due to playing games for a long time, observing violent content, or continuously scrolling the screen without any reason.
Mental health issues In recent days, children, as well as young people studying secondary or higher secondary schools, suffering from depression, mental distress, anxiety, and others. According to many neurologists, screen time surge is directly linked to mental health issues among the young generation. United States surgeon-general Vivek Murthy recently argued that social media is associated with mental health harms for adolescents.
What recommends Doctors?
Many research studies have explored that there is a direct relationship between excessive screen time and autism disorders among children. It is quite important to rest your eyes and brain for at least a few hours without touching electronic devices.
According to many doctors, parents should leave their children in Sunlight for walking or roaming around for at least two hours per day. Prevention of outdoor activities also plays a role in increasing many indoor risks like eye health issues, poor brain development, lack of immediate response in kids, and so on.
Dr. Sajad Khanday, Professor of Ophthalmology at Government Medical College added, “Myopia is more prevalent among children who remain indoors with electronic gadgets. It is less seen among those children who remain active outdoors in sunlight for at least two hours a day,”.
Dr Sheikh Sajad, HoD, Department of Ophthalmology at SKIMS suggested that “We are also receiving cases of squints among children. Encouraging outdoor play, engaging in physical exercise, and fostering hobbies that do not involve electronic devices are recommended strategies to safeguard children’s vision”.
In an interview held in the May 2023 advisory, a US general surgeon, Dr. Murthy recommended that “parents immediately set limits on phone use, and urged Congress to swiftly develop health and safety standards for technology platforms”.
What are the control measures?
- Select the social media content for your child. This must be age-specific.
- Make your child adopt co-viewing and start a discussion with them regarding the content
- Set a time limit for watching the content or screen time.
- Teach them the harmful effects of over-exposure to screen time and encourage them to participate in outdoor activities.
- Following the 20-20-20 rule, i.e., for every 20 min of screen use, take a break and look at something 20 feet away for 20 s. Practising the 20-20-20 rule will help alleviate digital visual strain and safeguard the eyes from various vision disorders.
- Parents should be aware of the harmful effects of excessive screen time.
What is the role of parents in preventing excessive screen time?
As primary caretakers, parents should minimize screen time at home. They can set a limited time for their children to get exposed to mobile phones, computers, or any other screens. They can also fix a complex password or safeguard settings for tech-driven devices to prevent their child from operating them without permission.
What is the limit?
For <18 months: No screen time should be allowed except for video calling
For infants (18 months to six years old): Should be less than an hour a day, many doctors preferred co-viewing options.
For young (7 to 12 years old): Parents should monitor the screen time of their children and ensure a healthy balanced screen exposure by limiting their tech activities.
FAQ
What is Screen time?
Amount of time spent using a device with a screen such as a smartphone, computer, laptop, TV, video games, or tablet.
What is Autism?
Autism spectrum disorder impacts the nervous system and affects the overall cognitive, emotional, social, and physical health of the affected individual.
What is the adequate screen limit?
Less than one hour per day for children.
Health effects of excessive screen time in children?
Autism symptoms, Myopia, Speech development, vision issues, sleep disturbances, aggressive behaviour, Mental health issues, and delays in walking.
