Health & Medicine, New Zealand (Commonwealth Union) – In today’s digital age, the internet has become an integral part of our lives, offering countless benefits and opportunities. However, there is a growing concern about excessive internet use among children. While the internet provides a wealth of educational and recreational resources, its overconsumption can have adverse effects on children’s physical, emotional, and social well-being.
The vast array of entertaining content, including social media, video sharing platforms, online gaming, and streaming services have long been a concern for many parents due to children getting addicted to such services and consuming inappropriate content. These platforms are designed to captivate users and can lead to prolonged screen time if not regulated properly.
Researchers from the University of Otago, Wellington have indicated that regulations are promptly required to guard children from damage in the unregulated online world.
The research findings have prompted a call for action as they shed light on the after-school habits of 12-year-olds. Recently appearing in the New Zealand Medical Journal, the study reveals that children are devoting a significant portion of their after-school hours to screen time, with more than a third of their time engaged with screens. Alarmingly, over half of their screen time occurs after 8pm, raising concerns about the potential impact on their well-being.
According to Dr. Moira Smith, a senior researcher from the Department of Public Health, the study’s findings reveal that children’s screen time after school far exceeds the current guidelines. These guidelines suggest that school-aged children and adolescents should have less than two hours of screen time per day (excluding school hours).
The study’s results are derived from the Kids’Cam project, an innovative endeavor that involved 108 children wearing cameras. These cameras captured images every seven seconds, providing a distinctive and valuable perspective into the children’s daily routines during the years 2014 and 2015.
The study found that the children were mainly engaged in games and watching programmes. For 10% of the time the children utilized over 1 screen, with screen utilization harming children’s health as well as wellbeing.
Dr Smith indicated that it’s linked with obesity, poor mental wellbeing, poor sleep together with mental performance as well as an absence of physical engagements.
She further indicated that impacts the children’s capability of concentrating and regulating their behaviour together with emotions as well.
Screen utilization is currently a frequent component of children’s daily lives and is likely to have gone up since the Kids’Cam data was gathered in the study.
“Screen use rose rapidly during the COVID‑19 pandemic, and children in 2023 are frequently spending time online, particularly on smartphones. According to the latest media use survey, YouTube and Netflix are the most popular websites for watching programmes, with one in three children under 14 using social media, most commonly TikTok, which is rated R13.”
She pointed out that children face exposure to ads for vaping, alcohol, gambling as well as junk food, and are facing sexism, racism as well as bullying when they are online. She indicated that cyberbullying is particularly increased among children in New Zealand, with 1 in 4 parents reporting that their child was exposed to bullying when they were online.
Dr Smith stated that the present New Zealand legislation is out of date and does not satisfactorily tackle the online world children are faced with.
“While screen use has many benefits, children need to be protected from harm in this largely unregulated space.”
She indicated that the Government is to be applauded for bringing up further regulation of social media the recent consultation document from the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), which takes note of concerns surrounding children being able to access unsuitable content when they are online.
