The topic of which age to give your child a smart phone is more and more prevalent in this day and age. Technology is more and more relevant everyday and we have to figure out the best time to give our kids access to the entire world. Kids have free realm to everything on the worldwide web, good and bad. It is very scary to expose your kids to these things and giving them a smartphone will exposed them to everything.
We use smartphones on a daily basis, basically at every point that we are awake. We are constantly looking at a screen and we have to decide when we will bring our children into this culture. Now 75% of teenagers have a smartphone, an astonishing number of kids with smartphones. Teenagers look at a screen for 9 hours a day and unlock their screen about 95 times, consuming too much time. The stats that have come out are that users spend 40 minutes a day on snapchat and 60 min a day on YouTube. This shows how much an impact these apps have an impact on the youth in our lives.
To attract the children of worried parents, Youtube and Facebook are setting up for a new market. Youtube created “YouTube Kids” and Facebook created “Messenger Kids” and new users are rising rapidly.
Parents are so overprotected now a days, it is wild. They give their kids all these crazy restrictions and rules for their kids, which only makes their kids more addicted. Its like when the kid’s parents who restricted how much he could go out gets to college, and he ends up going out everyday and failing. These restrictions don’t let kids develop any self-control and in the long run it ruins them. We need to figure out when is the correct time to expose our kids, because it is our future generation.
Sources:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iphones-vs-parents-the-tug-of-war-over-americas-children-1515772695
http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5693ab25e6183e1c008b8474-480/child-with-an-iphone-6.jpg
Parents may debate the age at which to grant their children access to a smartphone. The decision is often influenced by many factors. It may be attractive to know that a small handheld computer in the form of a phone can provide their child with endless applications that may enhance their educations. These phones also give children access to games, the Internet, and social media apps.
Children’s brains are not yet developed at young ages to handle situations that may arise with social media. Thus, many child psychologists, including Richard Freed, a California-based child psychologist are interested in how smartphones may be linked to anxiety and depression in children. With an ever-growing number of children and teens with access to smartphones, it is worrisome to know the prevalence of such a link may also be growing.
For those parents more worried about getting in contact with their children, Lifewire compiled a list of smartphone devices they have determined most suitable for young users. However, if a parent’s main concern is contacting their child, maybe a good, old-fashioned flip phone is still the best option.
https://www.lifewire.com/best-phones-to-buy-for-kids-4071586
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/11/21/564057632/deciding-at-what-age-to-give-a-kid-a-smartphone
As our lives become increasingly more dependent on technology, it’s easy to understand why younger generations are also becoming more attached. This is very concerning for parents, since they are unsure what effects so much exposure to technology at such young ages will have.
Two major Wall Street investors have asked Apple to study the health effects of its products. According to a Wall Street Journal article “Silicon Valley companies are under fire from all sides, facing calls to take more responsibility for their role in everything from election meddling and hate speech to physical health and internet addiction”.
In the last few years it is evident how much technology kids are exposed to. When I was in middle school we barely used the computers, only when necessary. Now a days though, my same middle school offers an iPad class as an elective. A 2015 study by Common Sense Media found that, “more than half of teenagers spent upward of four hours a day looking at screens, and that for a quarter of teenagers, the figure was more than eight hours”. Another 2016 study discovered that, half the teenagers said they felt addicted to their mobile devices. Investors know how worried parents are, and therefore are reaching out to the companies for answers.
Though I agree that companies can do their part to protect kids, I also understand that the parents have a role in all this. It’s hard to protect your kid from all technology, but if parents focus on teaching moderation and limiting usage when it comes to electronics at home, there would be no need to worry as much.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/technology/apple-tech-children-jana-calstrs.html
Technology has taken over the 21st century. This has come with many benefits as well as costs. Recently, parents are relying on technology for communication, transportation, and information. It has come to the time where parents are deciding whether or not they should be allowing their young children to use technological games.
Today, children are spending on average 7.5 hours per day on some sort of technology, 75% of children have TV’s in their bedrooms, and 50% of North American homes leave the TV on all day.
Many games are now being produced through gaming consoles and other devices similar to that. Children are relying on technology for their play time. Since the technology is completing their tasks automatically, children are limiting their creativity and imaginations. With that being said, their bodies are losing out on sensory and motor development. Technology is delaying children’s development milestones. They are struggling with attention skills which is proven to ultimately lead to behavior problems, especially in the classroom.
Children need on average 2-3 hours per day of human”touch” to stimulate their tactile systems. Touch also lowers adrenaline in children which leads to a decrease in anxiety. Without human touch, these systems are under-stimulated while the visual and auditory systems are over loaded. That leads to a sensory imbalance in their brains which can turn into a deeper neurological problem.
According to many parents, technology is taking a toll on their children’s health. Technology will forever be advancing but the problem arises when children are spending countless hours and are missing out on proper human development.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/cris-rowan/technology-children-negative-impact_b_3343245.html