Mobile Devices and Young Children: What Parents Should Know and Do

In the present technologically advanced world, smartphones help us interact with people and ease our daily routines. But remember that everything that is beneficial can be harmful if not used properly, and the same is true for mobile devices. Parents, for example, believe that kids using mobile devices helps them gain knowledge.

But in reality, kids mostly use mobile devices to enjoy television, chat with friends, share pictures on social media, and play games. Also, a vast majority use them while eating food, which disturbs contact with family and friends. If your kids have also started using smartphones excessively, learn how it is impacting them and what you need to do!

Children And Mobile Devices: What Parents Should Know

If your kid uses their mobile phone to interact freely with others or browse online content, it raises the likelihood that they will come across something that harms them. Besides that, it can also lead to:

Cyber aggression

Kids who use mobile phones are also vulnerable to a wide range of cybercrimes, including online identification scams, Cyber aggression, and phishing. These cybercrimes can have a significant psychological, physical, and financial effect on children's brain development. Cyber aggression is the threat of people using technology like mobile phones, video game chat rooms, and websites like Facebook. Examples of Cyber aggression include sending harsh texts, creating rumors, and posting inappropriate images. If your child is in this scenario, you won't know about it until they speak up.

Subject To Inappropriate Content

There is no regulation in this world of the internet. Content with brutality and false information is available on the internet, and it can have a long-term influence on the mental health of youngsters. According to studies, one out of every ten youngsters aged six to eleven who use the internet has experienced something unpleasant or troubling. These experiences can have a lifetime impact on their thinking and attitude. Bad content and inaccurate details also harm children.

Eye Strain From Mobile Phones

Continuous usage of mobile phone screens has been shown to cause major stress on the eyes, resulting in burning, painful, or fatigued eyes in children. Children frequently stare at devices while surfing the internet, watching too many YouTube videos, or playing video games. Long-term screen use causes a variety of symptoms, including headaches, weariness, impaired vision, sleep deprivation, and head and neck pain.

Reduced Social Interactions

Mobile phones and online social media platforms form a digital world where kids want to spend most of their time. This results in fewer face-to-face social interactions, which badly affects children's intellectual and emotional growth. Less social engagement causes severe behavioral problems in children, including shyness, insufficient communication ability, bad networking abilities, and an absence of social skills. These concerns arise because children are always distracted, even while sitting in a crowd because they believe they must check their devices.

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep is essential for the upbringing of the mental and physical health of the children." Still, various factors affect adequate sleep, such as multimedia devices, especially mobile phones. Using a mobile phone upsets your circadian cycle and limits melatonin production, resulting in insomnia. The blue light on your phone's screen confuses your brain into believing it's daytime, making falling asleep more challenging.

Mobile Phone Safety For Kids: What Parents Need To Do

When deciding whether children should get a phone, it is important to analyze their maturity and ability. You may help your child avoid unsafe or unsuitable content and behaviors by educating them. Besides that, you can also:

1. Set Boundaries: It's critical to set limits and restrictions for your children. But do not forget to discuss with your kids why you have set these boundaries. These limitations may involve time limits for screens, restrictions on which apps they can use, and where they are permitted to use their phones. Allow them to use their phones after they finish their educational tasks and assignments or before dinner.
2. Engage With Your Kid's Phone Usage: As a parent, you must foster positive relationships with your children so that they may freely share their screens with you. It allows you to see which websites and apps your child is viewing on their mobile device, laptop, or computer and how much time they spend on multiple devices.
3. Teach Them Phone Security: Before enabling your kid to operate a phone, tell them that internet security is essential to having a mobile phone. Discuss how crucial it is not to disclose confidential data online, such as their complete name, location, or institution name. Explain the potential hazards of connecting with outsiders and the drawbacks of posting too much personal data on social media apps like Facebook and Instagram. Also, tell them not to disclose their password with friends and keep their mobile in their hand or bag so that it cannot be easily stolen.
4. Screen-Free Ways To Engage With Your Young Children: In today's media world, where everyone owns a mobile phone, it's hard for your children not to want one. Giving a phone to a child is not a big thing, but their excessive use is harmful. So, if you want your children to spend less time in front of screens, involve them in activities such as playing outdoor games, reading books, or taking them on long drives or dinners. By doing so, you can limit your children's use of mobile devices while still allowing them to interact socially.

Conclusion:

Presently, technological devices have become necessary for everyone. These media gadgets are good to some extent if used properly, and elders know how to use these devices. But what about kids? Kids grow up in an environment where almost everyone has handheld devices like mobile phones and tablets, and they demand the same thing but don't know how to use them. So, as a parent, you must see what age is best for your kids to have phones and teach them how to use them safely. Also, set boundaries and tell them when and where they can use their phone. For all these, you need to develop friendly relations with your kids so that they freely discuss everything with you when they suffer from any online scam or cyberbullying.