- Children, teenagers, young people adopt change more quickly and quickly align with the latest trends, trends with which parents and adults in their lives do not always manage to keep up.
- If a few years ago connecting to the Internet required a minimum of effort (getting a PC, laptop for example), today, most of the population has a smartphone connected to the internet, and the young generation is no exception.
- Whenever we have a free moment, we quickly pull out our phone to check what's new, even if it hasn't been more than half an hour since we last did this. We communicate online, we learn online, we relax online, we explore for hours on end, and often, at the end of the day, if we tried to determine how this time in front of the screen brought a positive contribution to our lives, we often cannot formulate clearly an answer.
- Technology is convenient from many points of view, brings satisfaction, opens doors and opportunities. For children, it offers access to information and countless ways to explore the world, infinitely more compared to those that previous generations had access to during childhood.
Parental control in the digital environment
In 2023, Qustodio, one of the giants active in the industry of online safety solutions for children, developed an extensive study regarding the use of screens by children, current trends and risks. According to the report, in the United States of America, 75% of families with children under 5 have a tablet at home and only 1 in 4 parents (so 28%) consider that the ideal age to use parental control functions and applications is under 3 years, an age at which most of the little ones are exposed to screens either television, tablet or parents' phone.
The majority of families appreciate that between 7 and 9 years (25%), respectively 10 and 12 years (22%) is the right age for the child's online activity to be supervised by the parents.
According to another older study, from 2015, 41% of children under the age of 12 had a smartphone. According to a current research by Stanford Medicine, in 2023, 25% of children receive their first smartphone by the age of 10 years and 7 months, while after the age of 12 and a half, 75% have their own smartphone.
According to EU Kids Online (2017), the international research network that studies how children and young people use the Internet - the risks and opportunities of the virtual environment, children between the ages of 9 and 16 used the Internet, on average, 88 minutes/day.
- 87% of the time at home, followed by 63% of the time - at school.
- 33% used a mobile device to browse the Internet.
- 22% of those aged between 9 and 10 were active on Facebook; in the 11-12 age group, 53% were present on Facebook.
- 26% had profiles on social networks.
In 2023, according to Qustodio, the time spent by children, on a global level, on TikTok during the year increased to 127 minutes/day.
The risks to which unsupervised children are exposed in the online environment
- Adult content/pornography
- Exploitation - the practice of adults using the Internet to manipulate/exploit minors for abusive or sexual purposes
- Internet addiction
- Virtual bullying (cyberbullying)
- Addiction to social media
- Mental health issues
- Sleep disorders
- Concentration problems
- Confidentiality of information in the online environment.
The child's age and exposure to screens
Experts claim that it is difficult to establish an appropriate age for access to screens and recreation in the digital environment. In most states, at 18, teenagers are considered adults, although the brain is still developing. Brain development is a complex and continuous process, and the prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making, prioritization and planning, becomes mature somewhere after the age of 20, reaching up to 25 years.
It is difficult to quantify the recommended time for a child to sit in front of the screen, although multiple studies have been conducted on this topic, from a scientific point of view there is no consensus. Apart from that, several factors related to the uniqueness of the child must be taken into account:
- Developmental rhyme is different from child to child, while some reproduce simple words and associate them with objects from 12-18 months, others manage to say their first words around the age of 2 years, therefore, "from the age 2 years is allowed x screen time" cannot apply to everyone, given the different level of development.
- The type of content watched has different effects, a child who watches a 1h 30 documentary from an area of his interest will have a completely different experience compared to a child who plays a violent game for the same period of time.
- The context also plays an important role, watching a movie in the family is profoundly different from the situations in which the parents and the child watch content separately, each on a different device.
According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) :
- Up to 18 months of the child, video call content is allowed, for example a video call with the parent who is out of town and only in the presence of another adult.
- Between 2 and 5 years - 1 hour per day and no more than 3 hours on weekends.
- After the age of 6, online educational activities are encouraged.
- It is recommended to completely avoid screens during meals and family outings, as well as 30-60 minutes before bedtime.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends for children under 1 year of age :
- Physical activity several times a day
- No more than 1 hour in a static position (strollers, chairs, etc.)
- Zero access to screens
- During the baby's sedentary periods, stories and reading are encouraged
- Between 14 and 17 hours of sleep in 24 hours from 0 to 3 months, and between 12 and 16 hours of sleep in 24 hours from 4 to 11 months.
For children over 1 year old and up to 2 years old, it is recommended that watching TV or videos should not exceed 1 hour a day, cumulatively (the shorter this time, the better). Also, the WHO recommends training the child in physical activities - 180 minutes, at any level of intensity, throughout the whole day. The more physical activity, the better. Regarding sleep – 11-14 hours of sleep, including daytime naps.
At 3-4 years old , 180 minutes of physical activity of any intensity are recommended daily, of which at least 60 minutes of moderate-intense activity. Limiting sedentary time in front of the screen to 1 hour and 10-13 hours of sleep.
What can parents do?
- Choose content for the whole family . Prioritize the moments together, don't just supervise what the child is looking at. Depending on his age, choose a movie, for example, that you can all watch and talk about.
- Opt for quality, not quantity . We all need recreation and entertainment, adults and children alike. It is essential to prioritize quality, educational content that inspires us, positive and age-appropriate content that can generate pleasant topics for family discussion. There are websites, applications and platforms that support the learning potential of the little ones. Their integration, with the limit, in the child's daily activity, can help a solid foundation for development in a world in continuous transformation.
- Clear boundaries are needed . Determine the time spent in front of the screens, the type of content and the moments when it can be viewed (not during meals or homework). Don't forget to discuss fake news (especially with older people), harassment and virtual bullying. The overwhelming majority of parents would not let their children go out alone on the street without being sure that they know the rules of traffic and safety in general, but in the case of screens, children are often left in the digital world without minimal knowledge about the virtual environment and its dangers.
- Attention to live streaming content - the transmission of video content in real time, as it is created, involves a greater risk of exposing the child to age-inappropriate content (speech motivated by hate, nudity, violence, etc.).
Technology itself is not a "bad thing", digital tools can stimulate active learning, exploration, with the mention that they cannot replace human interaction. Especially in the case of new generations of children, who are "digital natives", parents have the great responsibility to protect children, helping them to distinguish between useful and harmful digital tools, and to evaluate potential dangerous situations.
How do screens influence child development?
"Since he was a baby, I have drawn pictures for him and the child is very good, now, at 2 years old, he has learned to count in English from there, he knows colors and animals". brings us to the heart of a much more complex problem.
Spending several hours, daily, in front of screens from the first years of life shapes the way the brain will process information from the real world.
- Watching content on various screens puts us in a state of passivity . In the long term, the activity of the left hemisphere of the brain is negatively influenced, this passivity affects concentration . Passively watching screens "accustoms" the child's brain to NOT think, not to concentrate, to remain passive.
- As the child grows, the excessive use of screens, especially for video games, movies, cartoons and shows where violence predominates, can lead to an increase in aggression .
- In addition to decreasing the child's attention level, early exposure of the young child to screens, several hours a day (cumulative), reduces empathy towards others . A study by the University of California revealed that exposure to technology limits children's ability to decode emotions (to recognize and understand emotions expressed through facial expressions, tone of voice or body language).
- The observation is also partially valid for adults who spend a lot of time online, especially on social networks. The specificity of these platforms directly or indirectly encourages the interaction of members, where users have the opportunity to hurt other users with comments they do not know in real life. The fact that what they write has consequences that they cannot observe (we do not realize how much suffering we cause to another person through a simple observation, what impact our statements have on the person), causes a decrease in the level of empathy for peers.
It is fundamental that babies and small children learn from interaction with their family, with the people around them, not from interaction with screens . The interaction with parents, grandparents, caregivers in childhood represents a critical stage in the development of the brain of the future adult. The baby learns from those around him to decode and respond to emotions, it is the period in which neural connections are shaped (the groups of neurons responsible for producing emotions form emotional centers).
- Also, the dynamic content (color, image, sounds that follow each other quickly) specific to the screens maintains a high degree of stimulation, not allowing the child to In the absence of this continuous stimulation, the child unaccustomed to "boredom" faces difficulties in manage emotions, frustrations Screen abuse limits imagination and creativity.
- Prolonged exposure to screens leaves no time for the child to play. Ludic skills (practiced during the game) require practice to be improved . Play is the main way children learn in the first years of life (both independent play and play with other children or adults). The studies indicate that the little ones left in front of the screens, once they start school, have difficulties to integrate in the recreational - creative activities with the other children.
- Belonging to groups is also essential for children. They need new relationships, experiences in the real world that will teach them to get involved in social contexts and respond to them. Today, friends are no longer invited to play at home, children play together, but separately, each from the comfort of their own home, and this does not constitute play.
The previously mentioned consequences are difficult for parents to detect and quantify. Besides this aspect, the consequences are visible not only in the short term, but also in the medium and long term, therefore, "he gets screens as often as he wants, but it does not harm him in any way" is not a valid argument. As parents, we have the duty to find a balance between the benefits of technology and the potential risks.Information is the first step in trying to guide children in the digital world.
