I haven’t been handing my smartphone to my kids since this morning. “Is there an internet?” Hale, my 7-year-old daughter, inquired.
“None,” I answered.
“Is it easy to fix the internet or create an internet?”
I can only gasp upon hearing her question.
It’s clear, she wanted me to turn on our TV and tune in to Youtube. She had just gone home from school. Not yet changing her clothes, her inquiry was already directed to gaining internet access while she’s still in school uniform.
In this incessant rise of internet usage through gadgets such as tablets and smartphones, parents have found it convenient to hurl these miniature machines to their kids to give themselves more time to accomplish their endless to do lists at hand. Others even proudly buy their kids their own smartphones believing that doing so will pose no harm.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) discourages screen use other than video-chatting for children younger than 18 months. The UK Association of Teachers and Lecturers, moreover, have reported more problems associated with tablet use among preschool-age children. Problems include developmental delays in speaking and socialization, attention span, fine motor skills and dexterity – as well as more aggressive and antisocial behavior, tiredness and obesity. Moreover, they warn of kids’ excessive gadget usage “including possible withdrawal, loss of interest in or ‘crowding out’ other activities, lack of control, irritability, deception and furtiveness, poor performance, poor concentration and a loss of educational opportunities.”
When you give a cellphone to a 6-year-old child for him to freely explore the internet or watch video through an unrestricted and uncontrolled app, you are prematurely exposing him to a thousand bandits before he reaches to what in psychology we call the age of reason – before a child starts to learn the difference between good and bad, right and wrong.
Furthermore, a large US study in 2014 released a troubling developmental repercussions of kids online habits: “Engaging in these online social interactions prior to necessary cognitive and emotional development that occurs throughout middle childhood could lead to negative encounters or poor decision-making.”
Zooming back to the living room where Hale asked me these questions, you would find Chantry entertaining herself, careless about not being able to touch my mobile phone. She knows my rules. She’s getting used to it.
At the same time, Hale forgot about what she was looking for when I diverted her desire from gaining internet access to giving her a toy. Not the smartphone or tablet, which everyone refers to as toy, but a traditional toy that is 10% toy and 90% child.
We kept ourselves busy in the evening forgetting that we can also opt to have a screen time. The policy in our home is becoming stricter as days go by. Lesser screen time to sometimes no screen time in a day. When I say “no screen time for today,” my kids are beginning to comprehend how I mean what I say.
Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, revealed that his children haven’t used the newly released iPad during his interview in 2011 and that he set limits on how much technology his kids use at their home. Likewise, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, admitted to limiting his kids’ exposure to technology.
It should be observed, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs seldom let their kids play with the very products they helped create. When these two minds behind two computer giants set limitation to their kids’ technology usage, have you ever wondered what is it these wealthy tech figures know about their own products that their consumers don’t?