Too Much Screen Time For Kids Is Bad
I don't have a kid yet but I'm happy to know this before having children. I'm definitely going to be as strict as I have to be with regards to screentime.
Nowadays, kids that are just 7 years old have phones. Funny enough some own more expensive phones than 40 year old adults. They get addicted to their phones at a very early age which means in their lifetime they'll have a lot of screentime.
The unfortunate thing is that recent research tells us kids who spend more time on screens may face mental health challenges. This is pretty obvious effect because of the loads of random information on social media.
A study by UC San Francisco found a strong link between increased screen time and higher levels of depression, anxiety and also attention issues in children aged 9 and 10.
This is not simple research that was conducted. It took the researchers about two years following over 10,000 kids to draw this conclusion.
It turns out that activities like video chatting or face Time for the iPhone users, texting, and gaming could harm young minds.
When kids spend too much time on screens, what happens if that they miss out on important activities like playing outside and socializing in person. These activities they miss out on actually help reduce stress and improve mood. No wonder there are now more introverts, antisocial people, and young adults with serious mood swing problems.
I've even realized a serious decline in the morals of youth of today and I think all these stem from way too much screen time.
But one very interesting thing that research also revealed was that the effects of screen time differ among racial groups.
White children showed a stronger connection between screen use and mental health problems compared to their Black and Asian peers. So this means that the white community must actually take screen time for kids more seriously than any other racial group should. I'm not trying to be racist, I'm just sharing the same findings these researchers got.
How will parents help to solve this problem? Well you can't exactly take the gadget from their hands and deny them of any screentime at all but I'll suggest A Family Media Use Plan.
This plan should consider each child’s unique needs. It should also set limits on screen time for the children.
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