According to Ofcom research, in UK one in five, three and four-year-old’s have their own mobile phone. The rapid rise of phone use by very young children has brought the issue into the foreground as a public health question.
However, uses of phones can be of a wide range that teams are unhelpful and inaccurate, as researchers in this context are generally keen to change the narrative away from “harm of screen time”.
Prof Tim Smith, a cognitive psychologist at Birkbeck, University of London said, “not all screen time is the same”. It can be developmentally beneficial if young children are being shown apps that help with word learning.
According to longitudinal studies of toddlers, Smith and colleagues said, 12 months old infants with high touchscreen use, affected their attention span and had poor memory at the age of three. This indicated a negative effect on brain development.
Opening inappropriate content increases, because when a child has potentially unregulated access to their smartphone, which opens up the potential for hidden tech use. For other problems screen time is often used as an unhelpful proxy, such as the lack of access to other activities.
When parent child interaction is less, children get addicted to mobile phones and other devices. The most important thing of all is children should get sufficient sleep and physical exercise.
Digital activities that are age-inappropriate, or which are addictive, such as games with loot boxes, are concerns, relating to preschool children there is not much evidence on this. Parents should be advised to be cautious and ask their children what they enjoy and why, always parents have to keep an eye on any consequences.
A consultant pediatrician based in London Max Davie said, parents should consider more on how to help their child’s development, rather than simply policing phone use. Children need communication, social interaction and play time instead of digital devices. Rather than a list of acceptable things or a time limit, think whether the smartphone use is helping those things or getting in the way.
