Thursday, February 27, 2020

Toddlers at risk of tech addiction as parents rely on gadgets to entertain kids


Parents are resorting to tablets and smartphones to keep their toddlers entertained in the car, before bed, and even at the dinner table.
 Toddlers who spend up to three hours a day staring at smartphones, tablets and TVs could be at risk of developing screen dependency disorders later in childhood, it has been claimed.

A survey of 1,000 parents, commissioned by ITV's Good Morning Britain , has revealed that just under a quarter of parents allow their children aged two and under to have as much as three hours of screen time a day. The older children get, the more screen time they are allowed. Of those who have children under five, 79% said they give their child screen time, and over a third (37%) said they allow their child between two and three hours a day.
Two in five parents said they use phones and tablets to keep their children entertained while travelling, and 25% allow screen time before bed. 13% aid they even allowed their children to play with gadgets at meal times.
When asked whether they felt their child had the right balance between screen and non-screen related play, 85% of those surveyed said they did.
However, when asked whether they thought the UK should be brought in line with Australia, and advise no screen time for children under the age of two, 58% said they agreed or strongly agreed.
Mum Jodie White from Poole told Good Morning Britain that her son Oliver, aged two, is obsessed with watching screens, and is often on the iPhone or iPad from the moment he wakes up in the morning.
Sometimes he even comes into his parents' bedroom while they're alseep, takes the phone off charge, and plays on it for an hour until it's time to get dressed and have breakfast.
"I would say Oliver's probably on the iPad or the phone for at least three hours a day. If my phone has no charge or if he is on something and it runs out of charge the phone will get launched," she said.
"If I say no or take if off him once he's on it, anything and everything in his way will get launched or he just has the biggest paddy on the planet."
Oliver goes to nursery three mornings a week, and there are no screens allowed there. But Jodie admits that, when he's at home, he can be playing on up to three screens simultaneously.

"We could have Thomas the Tank Engine on the telly, 'Wind The Bobbin Up' on my iPad, and photos up on my phone - so he'll have all three going on at once," she said.
Jodie said she tries to police the amount of time Oliver plays on the tablet, but concedes that it's often easier to hand the phone over to the toddler to keep him quiet.
She also admitted that, during long car journeys, it can be a godsend to keep him entertained.
Commenting on the news, psychologist Aric Sigman said that tablet usage among babies and toddlers has increased rapidly, and this could be contributing to screen dependency disorders later in childhood.
"A tech device may be yet another toy but it has the potential to cultivate a dependence in ways that other toys don't," said Sigman, who has published a paper on the topic of screen dependency in the Journal of the International Child Neurology Association .
"Early intensive exposure may be setting the infants and toddlers up for an addiction that could appear later."
He added that earlier age of initiation and excessive levels of exposure to, for example, computer games may increase this risk in those genetically predisposed.
"As with any addiction - whether chemical or behavioural - some children will inherit genes that make them far more likely to become addicted while others simply won't and this now seems to apply to screen dependency disorders," he said.
"We must recognise that children's screen habits are established early and last for decades.
"Greater parental monitoring of child screen use can reduce early exposure, alter long-term media consumption habits and may prove a major inhibitor of later screen dependency disorders."

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